


D.I.D.

by good_mythical_miles



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Alcohol, Childhood Sexual Abuse, Childhood Trauma, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Flashbacks, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Self-Harm, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-22
Updated: 2015-11-06
Packaged: 2018-04-27 12:48:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 45
Words: 51,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5049217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/good_mythical_miles/pseuds/good_mythical_miles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In an alternate universe, Link suffers from dissociative identity disorder due to severe childhood trauma and Rhett does his best to help his friend through it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> You can learn more about the disorder here:   
> http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/dissociative-identity-disorder-multiple-personality-disorder
> 
> I began this fic as a method to help my studies. I want to be a psych major, and I had to write a research paper on a mental disorder. I chose D.I.D. I wanted to try my best to explore the different aspects of Link's personality while learning about this very serious disorder. I got help from an acquaintance, Lexi, who has the disorder. It is so incredibly important to me to write this with as much respect and understanding as possible, and not to turn this into an "edgy" fic plot. It was merely an educational tool for myself, and I in no way intend/ed to exploit the issue. 
> 
> Thank you.

“Huh, that’s weird,” Rhett thought to himself as he pulled into the parking lot of the studio. Link’s car was in the same place that it had been the night before. Upon entering the building, he jumped when he saw Link sitting on the black loveseat with a troubled look on his face. “Link? What are you doing?”

“I… I don’t know,” he said, staring blankly at the wall.

“When did you get here?”

“I don’t know.”

“Did you spend the night?”

“Probably...?”

“Well, are you okay?” he asked after a long pause.

“I think so… I mean, I feel fine…”

Rhett nodded reluctantly. “Didn’t you say you were gonna stay here and work late?”

“Yeah.”

“You probably just fell asleep, man.”

“Oh, why didn’t I consider that!?” he laughed. “Forget any of this happened. Let’s get to work.” Link grinned and followed Rhett into their office.

Everything was completely normal for the next few hours—the two men had forgotten about that morning’s ordeal. However, about halfway into filming the third episode of GMM that day, something strange happened.

Link slouched in his chair and put his feet up onto the table. He bit his lip as if he was deep in thought before turning to Rhett and saying, “Man, I can’t see with these glasses on…” He took them off and tossed them onto the tiled floor. “Much better! Sorry about that. What were we talking about?”

Rhett raised an eyebrow and reminded the man of the topic of their conversation. Link was practically silent for much of the latter half of the episode, and when the cameras finally turned off, his eyes drifted shut. “Link, you okay, man?”

His head jerked upward. “Huh? Yeah, totally fine. Just a bit tired.” He slowly lifted himself out of his chair before picking up his glasses and scurrying into their office.

“Is it just me, or is he acting extremely weird today?” Stevie asked to nobody in particular.

They all agreed. “He accidentally fell asleep here last night and didn’t go home. He probably just didn’t get a good night’s sleep. You know how much his day can get ruined if his routine is thrown off,” Rhett told the room.

The rest of the day in the office was spent editing the episodes, making important phone calls, and responding to the emails they’d received from potential sponsors. Link was uncharacteristically silent throughout their time at their desks, which slightly bothered Rhett. “Hey man. Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked Link quietly, to be sure nobody else would hear. “You know you can tell me anything, right? And if you haven’t told Christy, you should do that as soon as you get home. You’re acting—”

“Yeah, I know,” he mumbled. “Just some weird stuff has been happening recently. I’d rather not talk about it.”

Rhett was quiet, staring down at his keyboard while trying to come up with a response. “What kind of weird stuff?”

“I said I’d rather not talk about it!” Link’s voice was much more gravelly when these words escaped his mouth—more forceful. He slammed his hand onto his desk.

“Woah, man. Okay. I’m just worried about you. Just… Yeah. Sorry. If you need me, don’t hesitate to—“

“Alright,” Link sighed, voice soft just as it had been a moment earlier.


	2. Chapter 2

The next couple of weeks were more or less the same. Link would be acting a little bit off, but continuously blamed it on a lack of sleep. One morning, Rhett noticed a large, blue and purple bruise on the man’s bicep. “Where’d that come from?” he inquired, a serious tone to his voice. Normally he’d assume it was from a mountain biking excursion with their friend Nick or something along those lines, but he knew for a fact that Link had been at home.

“I, uh…” The man’s eyes flicked to the floor. “I don’t know.” His voice was barely audible.

“Link, I just wanna make sure you’re alright,” Rhett insisted.

“No, you don’t understand. I genuinely don’t know. I’m—“ The man stopped midsentence.

“Link?”

Silence.

“Link?”

The man’s head was tilted down, so all Rhett could see was his friend’s shaggy, dark hair. “It’s none of your god damn fucking business where this came from,” he growled. His tone was absolutely frightening. Rhett’s eyes grew wide. Link’s voice had gotten intense a few times recently, but this…this was taking it to a whole new level.

“Link… You can trust me, man…”

At the same time as the door to the studio opened—the interns had finally arrived—Link lunged forward, hands balled into fists. Taking Rhett off guard, the two men tumbled to the floor. Link was straddling him, throwing punches left and right. Rhett’s eyes were squeezed shut as he was batting his friend’s hands away. “YOU MOTHER FUCKER—“

“I didn’t do anything!” Rhett shrieked, interrupting the other man’s accusation. The interns were all frozen in the doorway, unsure of what to do.

Just as suddenly as the violent outburst had appeared, it vanished. Link tumbled off of Rhett’s lap and his facial expression turned from one of pure, animalistic fury to one of complete terror. His left eye was twitching as he slowly laid down and curled himself into the fetal position. The man was trembling from head to toe. He looked like a scared puppy, staring up at Rhett.

The larger man took one step forward and Link cringed. “Stay back! Please!”

“That’s coming out of Link’s mouth,” Rhett thought to himself, “but that is not Link.”

From behind Rhett, Jen asked, “Do we need to call somebody or…?”

Link sat up quickly, looking around in confusion. “Why am I on the floor?” he asked Rhett.

“What!?”

“What?”

Rhett helped his friend stand. “This is serious, Link. I don’t know what’s going on with you, but…”

“Something’s going on?”

“Don’t play games with me, man.”

Link looked to each of the interns, clearly wondering whether or not he should say anything in front of them. “Christy… Um… Well… Christy is leaving me.”

“WHAT!? Why!?”

“I don’t know!”

“Link, stop saying that you don’t know.”

“You don’t get it, Rhett. I honestly have no idea. I black out! I lose time. I…” His sentence trailed off. “Why do my hands hurt?”

“You were just throwin’ punches at me!”

Link’s jaw dropped. He backed away from his friend until he hit the counter. “See? I have no idea what’s happening.”

“You need to go talk to a doctor, brother. This is bad.” Link nodded solemnly. “I know you don’t know what’s happening, but… Well, I don’t see a lot of it, obviously, but you’re getting violent. I asked you what that bruise on your arm was from and you freaked out on me.”

Link shook his head. “I’m so sorry, everyone.”

The interns all formed a circle around the man. “It’s okay,” they each agreed.

“So, let me get this straight,” Rhett began. “Since when was Christy leaving you? Did this start happening before or after—“

“Before. I can’t help but think it’s part of the reason she’s—yeah. It was before.”

“Did you try explaining yourself?”

“There’s nothing to explain, Rhett!” Link threw his hands up in frustration. “I’m fucked.”


	3. Chapter 3

This was one of those moments when Rhett was glad they filmed multiple episodes of GMM a day, about a week before they were to be uploaded. Link had refused to see anybody, which greatly worried the Rhett. He just assumed that it was because Link had seen the doctor, the diagnosis was embarrassing, and he wanted to deal with it alone. Of course, this was wishful thinking on his part.

One night, he was sitting on the couch next to Locke and Shepard while watching the Power Rangers. He heard his cellphone in the other room ringing. “Be right back boys,” he mumbled, patting Shepard on the leg before getting up. When he picked up his phone, Rhett’s heart skipped a beat. It was Link. And it must be important if he was calling instead of texting.

“Are you alright?” he said immediately after answering.

“Um… What are you up to?”

“Watching the Power Rangers with the boys. Why are you calling?”

“Can you… Um… Would you mind coming over and staying with me?”

“What? For how long?”

“I don’t know. At least tonight.”

“I mean, I don’t see why not. Is something wrong?”

“I lost time again. Only this time, when I came to, I…” He paused.

“You what?”

“I… Please just come over. Like, now.”

“Alright, calm down. I’ll be over in a bit. Just let me get some of my things.”

Rhett quickly packed a small bag of necessary items before explaining to Jessie why he was leaving. Getting to Link’s home as soon as possible, the door swung open almost immediately.

“Rhett, look!” Link shouted, holding out his arms, which had been sliced in a couple of places.

“Jesus Christ, Link! What the hell!?”

“I just… THEY WERE JUST THERE!!!”

“Well, what did the doctor say?” he questioned as he stepped inside, slamming the door behind him and dropping his bag at his feet.

“That’s the thing,” Link mumbled, looking at the ground. “I don’t think I went.”

“What do you mean think?”

“I got into the car and buckled my seat belt, but the next thing I know, I’m sitting on the couch with these.” He held out his arms again.

Rhett shook his head. “We’re going to the doctor right now. This is not okay.” He grabbed the man by the arm and dragged him to his car.

Despite the fact that they hadn’t made an appointment, they were seen relatively quickly. As Link began describing his symptoms, the doctor’s eyes widened. “If you’re joking, I swear—“

“I’m not joking, sir. I’m scared. I’m terrified.”

“Do you know what’s wrong with him?” Rhett questioned.

“I have an idea. I want you to see a psychiatrist immediately. I think you may have an extremely rare disorder called ‘dissociative identity disorder.’ DID for short. I’ve never actually witnessed it personally.”

Link’s eyes widened. “What… What is that?”

“It’s pretty hard to explain, Mr. Neal. Now, this is only if I’m right. If you don’t have the disorder—if this is something else—then this next part doesn’t apply to you. People with the disorder suffered some sort of trauma or abuse as a child.”

“But I had—“

“The disorder is a way of blocking out and coping with the scary situations. Your brain has essentially broken itself into different pieces. Therefore, you probably don’t remember it. Those memories are with another part of your brain.”

Rhett was about to say something when Link snapped again. He jumped off of the table and swung a fist at the doctor, who dodged effortlessly, pinning Link to the floor.

“I’m so sorry!” Rhett gasped, trying to aid the man.

“It’s alright. I deal with violent patients all the time.”

Link’s body went limp before he mumbled, with a hint of remorse in his voice, “Did I do something again?”

The doctor helped him up. “You had another violent outburst.”

“I—“

“I’m just going to tell you now, these fits of anger are one of your identity’s ways of handling fear. Anger is that particular alter’s way of expressing its intense fear.”

“Fuck,” he sighed. “What’s an alter, though?”

“An alter is one of the broken pieces of your identity. They can seem like different people, each with their own names, gender, age, etc. This probably makes no sense to you. It’s hard to wrap your brain around.” The doctor turned to Rhett. “Have you actually had a conversation with one of them?”

Rhett shook his head. “What? Not really, no.”

“I want you two to go home and try to stay safe. Get an appointment set up with a psychiatrist as soon as you possibly can, okay?”

Link nodded solemnly. “Thanks.”

The doctor shook both of their hands and said, “Be sure to come back as soon as you feel you might need my assistance.”

Back at Link’s home, the two men were sitting on the couch facing each other in silence. Link had looked as if he had been struggling to keep tears at bay for an excruciating amount of time. Rhett was secretly wishing for the tears to fall so he’d finally be able to truly comfort his friend instead of watching him struggle to uphold his image of a “man.”

Link’s eyes closed. By this point, Rhett knew the man was about to switch to one of his… what did the doctor call it? Alters? Link was about to switch into one of his alters. Now that Rhett knew what was happening—or at least slightly—he felt like he could possibly have a better handle on the situation. These were all part of Link, but not LINK.

Link scooted to the far end of the couch, staring wide-eyed at Rhett. “Who are you?” he asked desperately. Link’s voice had changed. He sounded like a child.

“I’m… I’m Rhett…”

“OH! Luke told me about you!”

“Wait, who are you?” Rhett asked. This was the weirdest thing he’d ever experienced.

“I’m Jake. It’s nice to finally meet you!”

“It’s nice to meet you, Jake,” Rhett mumbled after a slight pause. “So… Who is Luke?”

“Luke is so cool. He’s nice. Not like Derrick. Derrick is a butthead.”

“Is Derrick the one who’s been hitting everyone?”

Link—Jake?—nodded enthusiastically. “He’s really mean. Luke tries to keep him away a lot.”

“But, Jake. Who is Luke?”

“Luke is… He’s like… I dunno! He’s just Luke! He’s my best friend. I love Luke. I want to be just like him when I grow up!”

Rhett couldn’t speak. He was staring into Link’s eyes. This wasn’t Link anymore. This was Link’s body, but his soul had vanished. A sudden flash of realization washed over him. No wonder Christy left with the kids. He could have easily hurt one of them. They must have been so scared. Despite his understanding, Rhett couldn’t help but feel a tinge of anger as well. How could she just leave him to deal with this on his own? He glanced down to Link’s hands. There were scabs on his knuckles that he hadn’t noticed before. Had he hit her?


	4. Chapter 4

“So, Li…Uh…Jake! Jake, how much do you know about Link?” Rhett asked. He needed to get an idea of who he was talking to. He shook his head in disbelief. He was talking to Link! No. It was Link’s body, but the man in front of him was bouncing up and down on the couch like a little boy. He had an innocent grin on his face—a sparkle in his eye that only children have. Rhett couldn’t help but think back to their time spent together as children.

“I dunno. Not much. I know he has kids! They’re my age. I like them a lot.”

“Do you know what he was like when he was your age?”

“Link? Naaah. I’ve only been here for a couple weeks!”

Link jumped off of the couch and grabbed the jacket that Rhett had thrown onto the floor when they returned from the doctor. He tied it around his neck like a cape and proceeded to run around the living room like a super hero. Link’s giggles filled the room as Rhett watched the scene play out in front of him. “Hey, Jake. Can you sit down and talk to me?”

“Why!?”

“Because, this is important. Do you think I can talk to… What was his name?”

“Luke?” Link plopped back down onto the couch.

“Yeah. Do you think I could talk to him?”

“Only if he wants to.” Link’s eyes closed and when he looked back into Rhett’s eyes, that childlike sparkle had vanished. He looked tired, solemn, and intense.

“Are you—“

Link placed his glasses on the coffee table and brushed his bangs off of his forehead. This must have been who showed up while they were filming GMM a while ago. “I’m Luke. I apologize about everyone’s actions recently. Normally I can hold them all back.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’ve been able to keep all of this drama contained. Not even Link has known about it. He’ll occasionally hear some weird voices in his head, but I’m the only one who has been able to take control. Until now, of course. I’ve been here with Link almost his entire life.”

“Wait, what!?”

“It’s true. He went through some shit. He doesn’t remember, but I do. That’s why I’m here.”

“I see…”

“I’ve been having trouble with Derrick recently. I heard Jake explain who that was. He started to get stronger when Link’s wife left with his kids.”

“So, he didn’t hit her?”

Link (Luke) shook his head. “There wasn’t any violence, but she was scared.”

“So, is it just you four? You, Jake, Derrick, and Link?”

Link blushed and looked down. “No, there’s one more.”

“Who?”

“They don’t want to introduce themselves yet.”

“Why?”

“You aren’t ready.”

Rhett raised an eyebrow. “To be perfectly fair, I—“

Link came back. “Why is your jacket tied around me?” he asked, a small smile beginning to form on his face.

“One of your alters is Lincoln’s age,” Rhett said with a chuckle. “His name is Jake. He was pretending like he was a super hero.”

Link burst out laughing. The sight and sound warmed Rhett’s heart. It had been far too long since that music filled his ears. “So, they’re not all bad?”

Rhett shook his head. “I just met two of them. Jake and a guy named Luke. He’s our age, I think.”

“What’s he like?” Link asked, his eyes as wide as saucers.

“He’s… Nice. He seems like he knows everything about what’s going on up there,” Rhett said, poking Link’s forehead.

“How much did he tell you!?”

“Not anything new, really.” Rhett didn’t want to get into any details. Link had been through enough that day.

He rubbed his temples. “Man, I’ve got the worst headache.”

“Stay here,” Rhett insisted. “I’ll get you some Tylenol.”

The two men stayed up well into the early morning watching documentaries on Netflix as well as discussing how they would handle GMM for the time being. Suddenly, Link turned into Jake again. “Can I be on the show, Rhett!? Please?”

“I don’t think we’re going to be filming any time soon,” Rhett told him. “But if we do, maybe.”

“Cool!” He let out a loud yawn. “I’m sleepy.”

“I guess we should go to bed,” Rhett nodded, glancing at the clock.

Link (Jake) grabbed a blanket off of a nearby chair before sprawling across Rhett’s lap. “You sure are a great pillow,” he mumbled, voice muffled by the wool fabric he was cocooned in.

Rhett couldn’t help but smile. He liked Link’s alter Jake. Hopefully he’d be around more than that Derrick guy. He definitely needed to talk to Luke, though…

Rhett thought that Link had fallen asleep, but he heard his voice say one more thing that night. “If Luke lets me come out and play again tomorrow, will you buy me some toys?”

“Sure, buddy,” Rhett said, patting his troubled friend on the back, who then wriggled around a bit in order to get as comfortable as possible.

Rhett sighed. His back sure would be sore in the morning… There was no way Link would let him get up. But, deep down, he was perfectly okay with that.


	5. Chapter 5

When Rhett woke up, he was still on the couch, but Link wasn’t. He immediately flew into a panic, images of Link hurting himself flooding his brain. However, in a matter of seconds, he saw the man sitting on the grass in the backyard with one of Lincoln’s toy fire trucks. The stupid little grin on his face let Rhett know that he was fine. Jake was taking care of him.

Rhett took this opportunity to grab his cellphone and make a few necessary calls. First, he called Jessie. “Hey, baby. I don’t think I’ll be home today.”

“Why?”

“Link’s in bad shape.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, panic in her voice.

“Just look up dissociative identity disorder.”

“Is that what’s wrong with him?”

“Yeah. He’s kind of all over the place right now. I don’t think I should leave him alone.”

“Alright, hon.”

“Tell the boys I miss ‘em.”

“Will do.”

Scrolling through his contacts, he stared at Christy’s name for a while before finally deciding to click on her contact. She answered almost immediately. “I’m so sorry!” she let out in a rush before Rhett could get a single word out.

“Christy—“

“Is he okay!? I didn’t want to leave him, but I was afraid for the kids.”

“Calm down. It’s okay. I’m with him right now. I spent the night, and I’m thinking I might do the same thing tonight.”

“Do you know what’s wrong with him?” she asked.

“He’s got dissociative identity disorder. It’s really complicated. I think it’s best that I let you google it instead of me trying to explain it.”

“So he… Will he be okay?”

Rhett was silent. He turned his head to stare at Link, who was still in the backyard. “I think so.”

Christy sighed. “Thank you so much for being with him, Rhett. I feel terrible.”

“I understand. I’m keeping him safe. You just take care of the kids.”

“Keep me updated, please.”

“Of course, darlin’.”

“Thank you…”

Rhett put his phone into his pocket before knocking on the window, signaling for Link to come inside. The man stood and approached Rhett slowly. Luke was back—or so Rhett had thought. “I’m scared, Rhett,” the man said, still in his childlike voice.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Derrick is saying scary things.”

“What kind of scary things?”

“He wants me to hurt you.”

Rhett hesitated. “Why?”

“He says that this is your fault. I don’t believe him though. He’s just trying to be mean.”

“Please don’t hurt me, Jake,” Rhett said, his voice shaky.

“Oh, I won’t! Derrick can’t make me do that. You’re too nice.” Link pulled Rhett into a tight hug.

The larger man let out a long sigh. Things were complicated before, but it seemed like they were getting more and more complicated with each passing second.

Suddenly, Link forced Rhett off of him, pure fury in his eyes. He raised a trembling finger, pointing at Rhett’s face. “Why would he stay with you? After all of the pain you caused!”

“Are… Are you Derrick?”

“Who else would I fucking be!?” he spat.

“Derrick… I didn’t do anything to Link! I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Link had Rhett backed into the wall now, unable to move. Suddenly, he turned around and fell to his knees. Head in his hands, he began trembling with sobs. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“Link?” Rhett asked, unsure if his friend was actually his friend.

He nodded. “I don’t… I…”

“Why are you sorry? Do you know what just happened?”

“I don’t know what I was saying, but I saw what I was doing. And I felt the emotions. I just couldn’t do anything.”

Rhett got down onto the floor next to Link and pulled the fragile man into a tight embrace. Rubbing his shoulder gently, he mumbled, “It’s gonna be okay, Linkster. We’re gonna get you all fixed up.”

“What could have caused this, Rhett!?” Link screamed in frustration.

“I don’t know,” the other man whispered, although his mind ran through everything Derrick had said. Was this really partially Rhett’s fault? How could it have been? He couldn’t think of any moment that he had upset Link… Seriously, anyway…

Link nuzzled his face into Rhett’s neck. “You give the best hugs.” For a moment, Rhett felt warm and fuzzy. That was one of the nicest things he’d ever heard come out of his friend’s mouth. However, when he realized that Jake had come forward, he was a little disappointed.

“Hey, Jake.”

“Will you buy me some more toys?” he asked, not letting go of Rhett’s torso.

Rhett thought long and hard. He didn’t want to leave Link alone in his state, but if he brought him to the store with him, there was no telling what trouble he’d get them both in… “I don’t know… If Derrick comes out—“

“Luke won’t let him! I promise!” he whined.

Before Rhett could respond, Link’s eyes closed. When they reopened, the look in his eyes was… Seductive…? Rhett raised an eyebrow. “Uhhh…”

Link ran a hand across Rhett’s jaw, giving him a slight smirk. Before anything else happened, Link was back to himself. “I need to go lie down. I’m a wreck,” he mumbled, pulling himself up.

“Link—“

“Just… Please go home, Rhett. I’ll be okay for now. I just need to sleep.”

“Are you sure? I can stay with you. It’s no big deal.”

“GET THE FUCK OUT!” Link (Derrick) bellowed.

Rhett didn’t need any further encouragement. He picked up his bag and left swiftly. On his drive home, his mind was racing. Who had that other alter been? It certainly wasn’t Jake or Derrick. He didn’t think it was Luke, either… Could that have been the fourth alter that Luke had mentioned the night before?


	6. Chapter 6

“Jessie, I’m home!” Rhett called.

She appeared from around the corner and pulled him into a soft hug, her face against his torso. “What happened to you staying over again?”

Rhett wondered how much he should tell her, settling on a simple, “He just wanted to sleep.”

She nodded and wandered back into the kitchen where she had been making the boys lunch. Rhett decided to grab his laptop and do a little bit of research on Link’s disorder. One article started with:

> Dissociative identity disorder (previously known as multiple personality disorder) is thought to be an effect of severe trauma during early childhood, usually extreme, repetitive physical, sexual, or emotional abuse.

Rhett was already aware of this, but the particular wording the author had used hit him hard. The one word that really stuck with him was “repetitive.” Whatever horrible thing that had happened, happened  _a lot_. And that made Rhett sick. The more he thought about it, he convinced himself that Link’s alter Derrick was just fucking with his mind—being manipulative for some reason. Rhett had never done anything to Link that would—or  _could_ —be considered abusive. Next, he remembered that Luke revealed that he had been with Link almost his entire life. The next thing in the article was a list of symptoms, including talking in your sleep, sleep-walking, anxiety, and compulsions, all which Link experienced regularly. The anxiety was a recent development, but it was there. Rhett sighed deeply and shook his head. He couldn’t believe that this was happening. This whole ordeal felt like one long, extremely realistic nightmare. He’d known Link since the first grade… How hadn’t he realized that something was wrong!?

He turned and stared at his phone, the urge to call Link growing stronger with each passing moment. He shook his head, convincing himself that the man needed rest. Rhett spent the remaining hours of the day restlessly wandering around doing chores for Jessie and surfing the web. He couldn’t focus on anything for too long, his mind constantly wandering back to Link and his suffering. Rhett needed to know what happened to him at such a young age that caused this. He felt sick to his stomach imagining what it could have been, but he suspected that knowing the truth would be even worse.

After the rest of his family had gone to sleep that night, Rhett pulled out a box of Oreos and mindlessly watched whatever crappy reality show was on. He was exhausted, but knew there was no way he’d be able to sleep. His mouth completely full of chocolate and cream, his cellphone rang on the couch next to him. Of course, it was Link. Rhett swallowed what was in his mouth before answering it quickly.

 _“Hello,”_  Link said, the word drawn out and his voice lowered.

“Link?” Rhett was confused.

_“I’ve been thinking about you…”_

“Well,” Rhett began, “I’ve been thinking about you, too…”

What was happening?

 _“What are you wearing?”_  Link asked, a slight giggle escaping halfway through the sentence.

Rhett looked down. “Uhhh… My sweatpants…”

“Oh, you’re no fun. Come on, play around with me a little bit.”

The strange moment that morning  _had_  been a fourth alter… The other three he felt like he could handle, but this fourth one… This was a different story all together. “Sooo… I know you’re one of Link’s alters… Who are you exactly?” His shaky voice did nothing to help mask his nervousness.

“I don’t want to tell you yet. It’s more fun that way!” Link hung up the phone before Rhett could get out another word.

He sunk back into the couch, staring at the phone still in his hand. He didn’t know how he should react to what just happened. Shrugging, he opted to simply return to his Oreos. Just like he had the night before, he fell asleep on the couch, wondering what the hell the next day would bring. 


	7. Chapter 7

Rhett was beginning to become nervous. He hadn’t heard from Link in a while despite the fact that he had made the man promise to contact him on a regular basis. Sure, it hadn’t even been 24 hours yet, but that didn’t matter to the older man. He always felt it was his job to protect Link, and this was the moment when he needed him most.

He just couldn’t take it any longer. He sent Link a text to tell him he was coming over, jumped into his car, and drove to his friend’s house. He assured himself that Link was fine, but he needed to be with him in order to calm his own panicked mind.

When Rhett knocked on the man’s door, he stood and waited…and waited…and waited. There was no answer. He rang the doorbell a couple of times. Still, no answer. He turned and glanced at the driveway, noting that Link’s car was still there. He banged on the wood in front of him harder and yelled, “Link! It’s me! Let me in!”

When there was still no answer, Rhett went back to his car. He was pretty sure he had a spare key to Link’s house in his glove compartment. Sure enough, it was there. He grabbed it and opened the door, his heart speeding up with anticipation. Link always answered the door on the first knock. Perhaps it was just that one of his alters wanted to be left alone…

“Link?” he called as he closed the door behind him. The house was silent. “Link, it’s just me! It’s Rhett! Where are you?”

He heard a shuffle in the kitchen, so he turned on his heels and walked slowly towards the room. He turned the corner, only to find Link on the hardwood floor completely naked, eyes closed, trembling, and holding a knife out in what looked to be self-defense. “Don’t!” he shrieked.

“Jake,” Rhett started carefully, realizing almost immediately that this was not in fact Link. “It’s okay…”

“Derrick said somebody was comin’ over to come and hurt us!”

“Nobody’s gonna hurt you…” Rhett began to slowly approach the man.

“But you were yellin’ and bangin’ and you’re super big and scary and—“

“Hey, Jake,” Rhett practically whispered, getting down on his hands and knees. “I’m not gonna hurt you, buddy.”

As Rhett crawled towards his friend, Link’s grip on the knife grew stronger—more determined. “Then why are you here!?”

“I haven’t heard from Link and I was worried. I just came to see if he was okay. Derrick is lying again, Jake. It’s alright… Just… Just give me the knife.”

Rhett carefully held out his hand. Link stared at it for what felt like an eternity before finally dropping the object. Rhett stood and placed it on the counter. He grabbed a soft blanket from the couch in the other room and wrapped it around Link to get him covered and keep him warm.

“Come on, stand up. It’s okay.”

Link clutched onto Rhett’s biceps with as much strength as he could as the man helped lift him up. Rhett guided him over to the couch and sat down next to him. “I’m sorry, Rhett,” Link cried, still as Jake. He buried his face in Rhett’s chest.

“What happened before I got here, Jake?” Link shook his head. “Jake, please tell me.”

“It’s scary.”

Rhett swallowed hard. Link was just getting worse and worse and worse. “Please, Jake. I need to know.” He needed to, but he didn’t want to.

“Derrick kicked a hole in the wall in Link’s bedroom.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. But then I came out and all of a sudden, Luke and Derrick were yelling at each other and I couldn’t hear anything and then Derrick told me somebody was gonna come and hurt us. And that’s when you showed up.”

“Why are you naked?”

“I was gonna take a bubble bath and play with my toys.”

Rhett sighed deeply and looked down. “Jake, promise me that you won’t listen to Derrick, okay? EVER.”

Link nodded vigorously. “I promise.”

As Rhett began rubbing his thumb along Link’s arm soothingly, the man’s head popped up. “What the fuck? Rhett, why are you… Why am I… Why are we… What happened?”

“I hadn’t heard from you since,” Rhett said before pausing, “since I left yesterday.” He decided not to tell Link about the mysterious fourth alter. “I was just worried about you. You didn’t answer the door so I used my spare key to come in. I found you curled up in the corner naked with a knife. You were pointing it at me.”

“Jesus Christ,” Link gasped under his breath. “But, why—“

“Jake said that Derrick kicked a hole in a wall. Then, Jake came out and wanted to take a bath and play with some toys. Only before that happened, Derrick and Luke started screaming at each other. Derrick convinced Jake that somebody was coming to hurt you. I had texted you to say I was coming over. This is all my fault. I’m so sorry.”

“This is way too complicated to follow…” Link shook his head. “It’s not your fault, Rhett. I’m sorry. You know, I was angry at Christy for leaving with the kids, but now… I’m so, so glad.” There was a long, heavy silence in the room before Link added, “I just wish I knew why this is happening.”

“I wish I knew, too. But we’ll get to the bottom of this.”

Link nodded, hugging the blanket tighter around himself. “I made an appointment with a therapist.”

“That’s great! When is it?”

“Tomorrow, actually. She said she wanted to see me as soon as she possibly could.”

“You have no idea how happy that makes me, brother.”

“You should go home, Rhett.”

“I don’t think I should.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Well, I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

After a pause, Link mumbled, “You really are the best friend anybody could hope for, Rhett.”

Rhett couldn’t bring himself to respond. There was just nothing he could say back that could convey what he was feeling in that moment. He agreed to go back home, but only when Link promised to shoot him a text once every couple of hours to let him know he was okay.


	8. Chapter 8

Rhett and Link were both in agreement that they needed to have a meeting with the interns to come up with a game plan. As soon as everyone was at the studio and seated, Link stood in front of the group.

“Sooo,” he said, rocking on his heels. This was followed by a long, awkward silence. “I clearly have a lot of explaining to do.” There were bruises on his arms, although he had no idea where they had come from.

“It’s okay, buddy. Just spill it,” Rhett piped in. The interns nodded in encouragement.

He sighed, looked down, and scratched the top of his head. “Well, as you all know, Christy left with the kids. I’m glad she did at this point. I… Sorry. I’ll spit it out. I went to the doctor, and… Well, it turns out I have a mental disorder—an incredibly rare one.”

Stevie gasped, and everyone else in the room went silent. Wide eyes were staring back at Link. “What’s wrong?”

“This is hard, guys. I’ve been diagnosed with—let’s see if I can pronounce this right—Dissociative Identity Disorder.” Everyone was staring at him blankly. “Multiple personality disorder?” he offered. No response. “Rhett, can you help me out, here?”

The man tugged at his beard while trying to figure out what to say. “I don’t know how much you want me to tell them, man…”

“I don’t know. Everything. I just can’t explain it by myself. I mean, you know more than I do, at this point. Luke has—I mean…”

“Who’s Luke?” Jen asked.

Rhett and Link exchanged a quick, uncomfortable glance. “One of Link’s… Alters. Other personalities… There’s basically…” Rhett stopped. He had absolutely no idea how to continue. “Hmph. It’s basically like there’s different people in there.” He pointed at Link, who was staring at the ceiling.

“Wait, what?” Eddie and Alex said simultaneously.

“Now, I have no idea what caused this, but apparently this disorder is caused by serious abuse as a child. I don’t remember ever being…hurt, though.”

“But that’s the purpose of the disorder,” Rhett continued. “His brain split different parts of his personality up into different…people. Kind of. It’s to protect him. So he can function.”

“Then why is it just starting now?” Stevie questioned.

Link shrugged. “I guess something is going on that’s triggering it. I have no idea what it is, though.” Rhett bit his lip. He couldn’t help but consider the possibility of being the one triggering him.

“I am so sorry, Link,” Stevie said, standing up and pulling her boss into a gentle hug.

“Thanks for not freaking out, everybody,” Link said with a sigh, sitting down on the black loveseat in the corner of the studio.

“I feel like we should tell them about each of your alters. You know, just in case any of them come out while we’re together.”

“You’re right. You should do that.”

“Okay, guys. Basically, when any of the alters are in control—“

“You mean in control of his body?” Jen asked.

“Yeah. Exactly. I know it’s hard to understand. When one of them is in control, Link blacks out. He loses time. He has no idea what he’s doing, so if he gets violent or something, please don’t hold it against him.” The room was silent, but Rhett felt everyone urging him to continue. There was no question that he’d leave out the flirty fourth alter in his list. “Well, first, there’s Derrick.”

“Uuugh, why’d you start with him?” Link groaned.

Rhett ignored him. “He’s who was in control when you saw him throwing punches at me. The doctor said that violence is his way of dealing with fright. You know—fight or flight.”

“That’s terrible, Link,” Alex muttered, shaking his head in disbelief.

“Then, there’s Luke. He told me that he’s been around for almost Link’s entire life. He’s actually a lot like Link himself. Except he doesn’t need glasses. And he’s a little more intense.”

Link cracked a smile. “I hear he’s a cool dude.”

“Lastly,” Rhett began, with a laugh, “there’s Jake.”

“What’s so funny?” Stevie pressed.

“I absolutely adore Jake. He told me he’s Lincoln’s age.”

“A kid!?” Eddie was shocked.

“Yep. A kid. One night, he took my jacket and tied it around him like a cape. He won’t stop asking me for toys. He’s really sweet.”

For the first time that afternoon, the room was full of smiles.

“Uh, guys?” Link said after a moment. “I hear… Um… Jake is talking.”

“Wait, what?”

“He wants to—“

“Let him come out!” Rhett put a comforting hand on Link’s knee.

With a slight nod, Link dipped his head and closed his eyes. After a brief moment, Link raised his head once more, surveying the room. He had a huge grin on his face.

“That is so bizarre,” Eddie gasped. He had clearly noticed that gleam in the man’s eye that Rhett did.

“Rhett, this is so cool!” Link giggled, hopping on the loveseat in excitement. “Can we film? Please? Please please pleeaasseee?”

Rhett looked back to the interns and shrugged. “We don’t have to turn on the camera,” Stevie whispered. Rhett nodded.

“Okay, Jake. Come on over here! Sit to my left!”

Link clapped his hands and ran to the desk. He leaned in to the microphone as close as he was able to without putting his mouth on it. “Welcome to our show. Today’s topic is dinosaurs. I love the T-Rex.”

The room was suddenly filled with soft giggles. “So,” Rhett began, “welcome to Good Mythical Morning…!”

“DINOSAURS!” Link yelled, throwing his hands into the air.

“Let’s talk about that!” Rhett finished.

Before another word could come from either of their mouths, Link hopped out of his chair and picked up the acoustic guitar that was hanging on the wall. Nobody said a word, waiting curiously to see what the man would do. Jake clearly no clue how to strum a single chord, so there was almost no noise coming from the instrument. “I LIKE DINOSAURS HOW ABOUT YOU? I LIKE DINOSAURS, THEY HAVE BIG POO!”

Everyone burst into hysterical laughter. They all exchanged glances, eyebrows raised and eyes wide. They felt like they were babysitting. “Can you put that back, Jake?” Rhett asked.

He nodded and obliged. When he turned around, he looked frightened. This caused everyone else in the room to become frightened as well. “Rhett?” the troubled man asked in a child’s voice.

“Yes, Jake?”

“Derrick is—“

“You promised me you wouldn’t listen to him, remember?” Rhett reminded him with a sense of urgency in his tone.

Link hit himself in the head. There were a few gasps from the back of the room, but Link smiled. “It’s okay! He shut up! Will you make me waffles, please? I’m hungry. Wait, is there any candy here?”

“Probably, little dude!” Eddie said with enthusiasm, walking over to Link and taking him by the hand, guiding him into another room.

The last thing Rhett heard come from Link’s mouth before he was out of earshot was, “What’s all over your arms?”

“They’re tattoos!”


	9. Chapter 9

Link, still as Jake, was standing behind Eddie, who was offering him different foods. “Are those olives?” Link asked suddenly.

“Uh, yeah…” Eddie looked back and made eye-contact with everybody in the room one by one. They were all thinking the same thing: Link hates olives.

“Yummy! Can I have those?”

Rhett nodded at Eddie with a slight smirk, who then took the plastic container out of the fridge, giving it to Link. Link sat on the floor and popped off the lid. He grinned widely and slowly took the small fruits out, putting one on each of his fingers. Wiggling his fingers around, he couldn’t stop laughing. When he began getting bored with the makeshift finger puppets, he finally started pulling them off of his fingers with his teeth.

Stevie turned to Rhett and motioned for him to lean down, giving her a chance to whisper in his ear. “Has he talked to a therapist or anything yet?” she asked quietly.

Rhett nodded. “He hasn’t told me anything yet, though.”

“Jake’s in a good mood. Why don’t you try right now?”

Rhett straightened up. Should he? Would he ruin the positivity they were all finally experiencing? Maybe. He decided to go through with it anyway. “Hey, Jake?” he asked after a moment.

“Yeah?” His voice was muffled as he was struggling to chew four olives at once.

“Link went to therapy yesterday, right?” He nodded in response. “Did they figure out anything important about what’s going on with him?”

Jake swallowed hard and stared up at Rhett, his smile disappearing. The expression on his face was unreadable. He wasn’t breaking eye contact with Rhett. It was as if his gaze was boring into his soul, and it was starting to freak the man out. Suddenly, Link started gagging. “Have I been eating olives!?”

Alex laughed. “Jake likes ‘em.”

“Goodness gracious… Well, now I’m stuck with the horrible taste,” he groaned, putting the lid on the container and placing it back in the fridge.

“It was worth a try,” Rhett thought to himself.

Link pulled himself off of the floor and steadied himself on the counter. “I’m assuming we haven’t talked about what we’re doing with GMM?”

“Nope,” Jen replied.

Link nodded. “I was kinda thinking we call this the end of season 6…”

“I guess that makes sense,” Rhett agreed.

“But what are we gonna tell everyone?” Stevie added.

“I guess Rhett and I could sit at the desk and I can explain the situation?”

“Do you really want to do that?” he asked.

“I mean, no. Not really. I’ll leave out all of the details…”

“It’s alright by me,” Rhett said, patting his friend on the back. Everyone else agreed, so they headed to the set.

The two internetainers took their places as the interns set things up. Rhett patted Link on the shoulder as a sort of silent reassurance that everything was alright. As soon as Stevie said that they were rolling, Link began talking.

“Hey there, Mythical Beasts. We’re sorry that we haven’t uploaded GMM in a couple of days, but I’m afraid it’s going to be like that for a little while.”

“This is our unexpected end to season 6, but season 7 will begin as soon as we can make it happen.”

“There are a lot of really serious things going on in my personal life right now that are making it virtually impossible for me to be here. I would explain more, but I feel like that’d be inappropriate given the circumstances. Don’t worry, though. I’m going to be alright, and we’ll be back as soon as we can.”

Rhett waved goodbye, Link shot up a couple of peace signs, and Stevie let them know that the camera was off. Link put his forehead against the desk and let out a long, deep sigh. He pounded his fist against the wood a couple of times before sitting back up. Derrick had clearly gained control. “Um…” Rhett began to say something, but Link interrupted.

“It’s okay. I’m not gonna throw any punches,” he grumbled. “This is all fucking bullshit. It’s all bullshit. All of it.”

“What’s bullshit?” Rhett asked hesitantly.

“Therapy. Talking it out. Everything. I’m fucking done. I should be the one in control most often. I’m the one that doesn’t take anybody’s bullshit. I can handle everything. The others don’t even need to exist. What the fuck is Jake doing for Link, anyways!? Here I am actually trying to get stuff done, but Jake is out playing with toys and shit. If we get good enough treatment, then I’ll be gone. I’ll die, essentially. I don’t want to go anywhere!”

Link stood and kicked his chair over before storming off into the other room. The set was silent. Nobody knew what to do. After a moment, Stevie came up to Rhett and said, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Jake idolizes you.”

“Do you think so?”

“Have you seen how he looks at you!?”

“Huh. I guess I haven’t noticed.”

“And if that is a part of his personality,” Alex continued, “that means Link idolizes you as well.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” Rhett mumbled, looking at the floor.

“He looks up to you, bro,” Eddie agreed. “Literally and metaphorically.”

Just then, Link burst through the door and grabbed a hold of Rhett. He was crying, clearly now Jake. “Rhett, Derrick is scaring me again!”

Rhett rubbed the other man’s back in soft, soothing circles, just as he did to his own children when they were upset. “Do you want me to take you home now, buddy?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright. Come on.”

Before he let go, Link muttered, “I wish you were my big brother… You’re the bestest.”

The interns smiled at Rhett and gave him a thumbs-up. That was that. Season 6 was over and Link could focus all of his attention on taking care of himself. The two men exited the building and headed towards Rhett’s car. A few minutes into their journey home, Rhett felt a palm on his thigh. The hand was moving further towards his crotch.

“What are you doing?” Rhett asked, batting Link’s hand away. He didn’t want to sound too harsh, as he didn’t know who he was talking to.

“It’s me again,” Link teased, a slight giggle escaping.

Shit. That fourth alter. “I don’t think you should be doing that.” Rhett had absolutely no idea what to do in his situation.

“Well, I disagree. I want to see if you’re just tall, or big all over.” His hand returned to its previous position, and Rhett repeated his actions.

“Stop. I mean it. Link and I are both married. This isn’t okay.” Rhett was surprised at what came out of his mouth. His argument was that they were married. It was as if his subconscious was saying that was the only thing holding them—him—back. No. It didn’t mean anything.

“Link is married, but I’m not.” Link wiggled his eyebrows.

“Stop it. Now.”

“Or what?”

Rhett didn’t know. Luckily, his best friend was back at that very moment. “Hey, buddy,” Rhett sighed.

“Oh, good. We’re almost home. My head is killing me. I need some pain meds.”

The rest of the car ride was uneventful, but as Rhett watched Link head back inside, he couldn’t help but notice the man fiddling with his wedding ring, clearly deep in thought.


	10. Chapter 10

Rhett was confident that Link would be alright by himself at least until the morning, so he went back to his own home. He hadn’t been able to spend any real quality time with his wife and kids in a little over a week. They went out for pizza and then came home and watched a movie. Shepherd wanted to watch Curious George, so that’s what they did.

Everyone in the home was fast asleep in their respective beds when Rhett was startled awake. The noise was merely his phone vibrating on his bedside table, but he was such a light sleeper that it woke him up immediately. He was about to turn it off when he saw that it was Link. He picked up the phone and walked into the family room so as not to wake Jessie.

“What’s up, Link?”

“Rhett, I’m scared.” The child’s voice coming from the other end sounded a bit embarrassed.

“Oh, Jake. It’s alright! Is Derrick yelling again?”

“No.”

“Then what’s wrong?”

“It’s super dark and everyone is talking and I can’t fall asleep.”

“Why don’t you just let Link or Luke come out so you don’t have to be scared?”

“Link has a headache and Luke has to keep Derrick away.”

Rhett sighed. “Okay, buddy. What can I do to help you?”

“Can you come over?”

“I’m sorry, Jake. But not tonight. I’ll come over tomorrow.”

“Hmph. Okay. Well, will you sing a song to help me get sleepy?”

Rhett couldn’t help but laugh to himself. He was about to say that he didn’t know any lullabies, but he remembered the one that was in the movie he had watched with Locke and Shepherd earlier. “I can do that. I’m gonna hang up the phone really quick, okay? I’m need to get my guitar.”

“NO! Please don’t. It’s dark and we watched a scary movie.”

“Shoot, I’m sorry, Jake. Whose idea was that?” Rhett asked as he wandered the house trying to find his acoustic guitar.

“Link.”

“So could you see it, too?”

“Yeah. Most of the time I can see and hear everything he’s doing.”

“Even when the other alters are in control?”

“Only Luke. I can only hear the other ones when we’re back.”

Rhett sighed in relief. He was worried about Jake being aware of that fourth alter’s actions.

“Will you sing me a song now?” he asked with a yawn.

“Are you in bed?”

“Yep!”

“Good.” Rhett had googled the lyrics and chords to the song so he could try his best to play it after hearing it only once. He put his cellphone on speaker, freeing up his hands to play guitar. He began strumming the simple notes, making sure to be as quiet as possible.

“Pretty!”

Good. Jake liked it. “Close your eyes, buddy,” Rhett said quietly, still strumming.

“They’re closed.”

Rhett began singing. “When you’re so lonely lying in bed, night’s closed its eyes, but you can’t rest your head. Everyone’s sleeping all through the house—“

“There’s nobody else in here,” Jake reminded him.

“Jake.”

“Sorry! Keep going!”

Rhett laughed. “Sing this lullaby to yourself. Sing this lullaby to yourself… And if you are waiting, waiting for me… Know I’ll be home soon darling I guarantee.”

Rhett managed to get through the entire rest of the song without Jake interrupting. When he set down his guitar, he heard the familiar sound of Link’s soft snoring. Feeling proud of himself, Rhett hung up the phone and crawled back into his own bed, having sweet dreams and hoping Jake/Link was doing the same.


	11. Chapter 11

Rhett awoke to a text from Link. “Come over,” was all that it said. It didn’t seem like anything too serious was going on. If that was the case, he would have called, or at least have gone into more detail. Therefore, he took his time getting ready, making breakfast for the boys, etc. He sent Link a text to let him know when he finally got into his car.

When Rhett knocked on the door, he heard Link call back from inside. “It’s unlocked!!!”

Leaving the door unlocked was unusual for Link. But then again, the usual Link had more or less vanished at this point. He stepped inside and shut the door, but when he turned the corner in the hallway, the sight he was greeted with hit him like a ton of bricks. There was Link, seductively leaning against a doorframe. That wasn’t it, though. He was shirtless, had on a skin-tight, black miniskirt that barely covered anything, and fishnet stockings. He was wearing black stilettos. As for his face, his glasses were missing and he had impeccably painted on a layer of bright red lipstick and black eyeliner.

“Link! What the fuck!?” Rhett gasped, taking a few steps backward.

“Oh, hon,” he giggled, “you don’t really think I’m Link, do you!?”

“I mean… Who? Who, um… I… You… Who are you?” Rhett was having trouble forming words, let alone complete sentences. He was staring at the floor, feeling too uncomfortable to fully take in the bizarre sight of the current state of his best friend before him.

Link rested his hand on the side of his face. His fingers barely grazing his skin, he tilted his head back, eyes half closed. Slowly caressing his own cheek, his pinky gently pulled down on the corner of his ruby red lips, unintentionally (or was it intentional?) smearing the color slightly. “I’m your dream come true, baby.” It was as if Rhett’s brain shut down, which greatly amused Link. “Humph, you’re boring,” he dramatically sighed.

“Uh, will… Will you introduce…yourself? Um, please?” Rhett stammered.

Clomping over to the taller man, the sound of the stilettoes echoing throughout the home, Link took Rhett by the hand and dragged him into the other room. “Sit!” he grinned, pointing to the couch. Rhett did as he was told. What came next was completely unexpected. Link climbed onto his lap, straddling him. He placed his hands behind Rhett on the back of the couch. “What do you want to know, big boy?”

“Uh, can you get off of me?”

“Nope, not an option. You’re extremely comfy.” He bounced a couple of times before settling back down.

Rhett grunted. “Alright. I guess the first question should be… What is your name?”

“Sam.” Link (Sam) gave Rhett a quick poke on the tip of his nose. “Boop!”

“Shit,” Rhett thought to himself. “I still don’t know if they’re a he or a she…”

“Come on!” the smaller man urged. “Next question!”

Rhett had no clue how to phrase his next question, but it was a necessary one. “Sooo… Are you…”

“Yes, I’m a ladyboy,” he giggled.

“You sure do giggle a lot,” Rhett acknowledged.

“Rhett James McLaughlin, are you finally flirting with me!?”

“N—No…”

“Riiiiight…” He writhed on top of Rhett and threw up his arms before screaming, “I know you love this body-ody-ody!”

Rhett froze for a moment before finally breaking the awkward silence. “Sooo…”

“You are terrible at asking questions.” Sam rolled his eyes. “I’m just going to do the talking instead, okay?”

“Sure,” Rhett nodded.

“Good. Well, I’m Sam. I need a big, strong man all to myself, and you will clearly fit the position… Although you do look kinda busted right now…” He tilted Rhett’s head forward, inspecting his hair.

“Excuse me?”

“I’ll just move on, I suppose. I’m absolutely fucking gorgeous—more gorgeous than Link, at least. But, you’ll never be blessed with that sight. I like to dress in sexy lady’s clothing, and I absolutely adore how your buddy here looks in it. He looks fierce wearing these, don’t you think!?” Link ran his hands up and down his own abdomen, Rhett’s eyes following. Well, Link didn’t look…bad… “Aw, don’t lie to yourself, baby! I see how you look at us!”

“Where did you get those clothes?” Rhett ignored the accusation.

“I went down to the mall. Why?”

“Please tell me nobody recognized you,” Rhett groaned.

“Recognized Link, you mean,” he corrected.

“Okay. Link. Did anybody recognize Link?”

“How should I know? I was on a mission!”

“How much did you spend!?”

“That’s none of your business, sir.”

“I should probably go back home, if…none of you need me,” Rhett said, averting his gaze to the wall behind Link.

“Okaaaay,” Sam sighed.

There was no dialogue exchanged for a brief moment until Rhett reminded the other man that he needed to get off of him. Before doing so, he grabbed either side of Rhett’s face and forcefully kissed him on the forehead. “GAH!” Rhett gasped, caught completely off guard.

“Sorry. I couldn’t help it! Off you go, then.” Sam hopped off of the couch, his heel clipping Rhett’s knee, causing him to stumble slightly. Recovering, he stood and threw his hands into the air as if he was a gymnast sticking a difficult landing. “I’M ALRIGHT!” Rhett couldn’t help but chuckle, shaking his head and looking down at his feet.

Walking outside to his car, Rhett remembered that he had a shopping bag in the passenger seat. He had bought a few Power Rangers and GI Joe action figures for Jake. He grabbed the bag and walked back to the house.

Sam opened the door. “Can’t stay away, darlin’, can you?” he said with a wink.

“I forgot. I bought these for Jake.”

“Aw, handsome and sweet!” Sam took the bag and tossed it behind him. He placed his hand on his hip and raised an eyebrow, clearly trying to seduce Rhett just as he had earlier.

“I’m leaving now,” Rhett mumbled.

“Alrighty, then. Come back sooooon!” the other man teased, twirling around and shutting the door before Rhett could respond.

Rhett zoned out all the way home. “Hold up!” Jessie gasped. She stopped Rhett in the hallway the moment he had walked into the house.

“Shit,” Rhett grumbled. He had forgotten about the lipstick on his forehead.

“Who did that?” she asked, squinting her eyes in suspicion.

“Let’s just say that Link has a new alter,” he sighed.

“Link!?”

“Yep. It was Link.”

“Who is this alter?”

“Some cross-dressing guy named Sam. That’s all I know.”

Jessie couldn’t help but laugh. “Wash that off of your face, babe.”

“You’re not mad?”

“Mad? No. It’s fine. You’re dealing with it. I’m almost done with lunch, so wash up!”


	12. Chapter 12

“I just got another text from Link, babe,” Rhett sighed. They were just getting ready to put the boys to bed when a message popped up on his phone. “He says he’s scared. I think I need—“

“Rhett, please just stay over there. I feel terrible that you keep having to go back and forth between houses. He needs you over there.”

“But the boys—“

“The boys are fine, Rhett.”

The man was conflicted. He really wanted to be able to sleep in his own bed and have fun with his two children, but on the other hand, driving to Link’s house and then back home was getting exhausting. With a grunt, he said, “I guess I’ll go pack a bag, then.”

“Good.” Jessie planted a light kiss on her husband’s cheek before he left.

Link answered the door almost immediately after Rhett rang the doorbell. “Are you okay?”

The man scanned the area before pulling Rhett into the house. “I don’t know who did it, but somebody threw away my favorite G.I. Joe action figure and it’s dark outside so I can’t go get it because I’m scared and I just—“

“Hey, Jake,” he said, shushing him. “It’s alright. I’ll go get it for you, okay?”

“Thank you so much!”

He walked back outside and opened the trash can. Holding his breath, he grabbed whatever was on the top of the pile. It was a bag of popcorn. He tossed it onto the grass to clean up afterwards. Next, he pulled out some ripped fishnet stockings. “Oh God,” he groaned, dropping them as soon as his brain registered what he was holding. It wasn’t until then that he became nervous about digging through the bin. The next couple of things were just food wrappers.

Then, he saw a crumpled up picture of himself. “What the…?” he whispered. As he began straightening out the paper, he smeared his finger through some gooey substance. He originally thought it was just something that spilled in the can, but then he realized that it was cum. He threw it back into the can with a disgusted gasp. Link had been jacking off to his face… He managed to pull the action figure out on his next try, so he threw the trash on the ground back into the can before running inside.

“Did you find it?” Jake sprinted up to Rhett as soon as he entered the building.

“Yep! It’s dirty, though. I’m gonna wash it before I give it back to you, okay?”

“Alright! Wait… Are you spending the night!?”

“Yep. I’m gonna be here for a while until Link gets better.”

He cheered and pulled the man into a tight hug. “Can we play a game, Rhett? PLEASE!?”

“Okay, bud. Let me clean off your action figure first, though.”

“Okie dokie. I’ll go pick out a game.”

“Cool.”

Rhett quickly walked into the kitchen and turned the sink on full-blast. “I cannot believe I’m washing my best friend’s jizz off of a toy,” he thought to himself.

He jumped in surprise when he felt hands on his hips. “Mmm, I see you found my dirty little secret,” Link said in a hushed tone.

“Sam, I swear to God, if you don’t stop I’ll—“

“You’ll what?”

Rhett grunted. He didn’t have an answer. “Did you do this on purpose?”

“Cum!?”

“No, get it all over Jake’s toy.”

“Derrick put that in there. None of my business,” he giggled.

Rhett threw the toy on the counter and turned around angrily. It took longer than he thought it would, but he snapped. “What the fuck are you doing!?” he growled. The comment wasn’t directed solely towards Sam, but also Derrick, and Luke to a much lesser degree. He wasn’t mad at Link at all. This wasn’t his fault. And Jake hadn’t done a single thing wrong. Sam and Derrick were making everyone’s life a living hell. “I’m serious! What the fuck is wrong with you!?”

The expression on Link’s face changed drastically. He looked as if Rhett had threatened to stab him. “I—“

“Jake? Jake, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t saying that to you.” He reached out his arms in order to hug his friend, but instead he batted his hands away.

“DON’T TOUCH ME!” he shrieked. As he sprinted down the hallway, Rhett chased after him.

“I fucked up, I fucked up, I fucked up,” he kept repeating to himself.

He burst through a closed door to find Link attempting to scurry under his bed. Rhett leapt forward and gripped his ankles tight before dragging him back into the open. Link’s face was bright red and covered with tears. “I’M SORRY! I DIDN’T MEAN IT! I’M SORRY! PLEASE DON’T HURT ME!” He folded himself into a tight ball on the floor.

Rhett’s jaw dropped. “Uh… I… Link… Jake, I mean… Jake, I wasn’t talking to you when I said that. I was talking to S…Derrick.” Rhett kneeled down and carefully wrapped an arm around his friend’s shoulders, making sure not to frighten him further. He didn’t mention Sam because he wasn’t a hundred percent sure what Jake knew about him.

“What did he do this time?” he sniffled, wiping tears from his eyes.

“Just the usual. He was the one who threw your toy away.”

“You mean… You mean you were sticking up for me!?” His entire face brightened.

“Of course! You’re my little buddy! As long as I can, I’m gonna make sure Derrick doesn’t mess with any of your stuff.”

Link nuzzled his face into Rhett’s neck and wrapped his arms around him tightly. “I’m sorry I got scared.”

“Why did you, Jake?”

He shook his head violently, refusing to speak. Rhett was positive that this episode had something to do with some sort of flashback of an experience that Link had as a child. He didn’t want to think about it any further.

Rhett managed to calm his friend down rather quickly, then dished them both some ice-cream and set up a game of Monopoly. About halfway through the game, he noticed that Jake was “gone.” He wasn’t sure whether it was Luke or Link in control, though, so he didn’t say anything.

“So, it looks like you’re staying over. What’d Jessie say about that?” the man asked.

“Oh, hey Link. Sorry, I was kind of zoning out. It was her idea, actually.”

There was silence between the two of them for a moment before Link looked to the carpet and mumbled, “I really appreciate everything you’re doing for me, man. Really. I can’t put it into words.”

“You don’t need to, brother.”

Link cracked a small smile and blushed. Rhett let out a loud yawn. “Tired?” Link asked.

“You have no idea.”

“You go to bed. I’ll clean up.”

“Are you sure?”

“It’s the least I can do. You go sleep in my bed, I’ll sleep in Lincoln’s.”

“Nah, man. I can’t do that.”

“Dude,” he chuckled, “I can’t even imagine you trying to fit in one of the other beds.”

Rhett grinned. “Okay, you win.”

“I’ll see you in the morning.” Link patted Rhett on the back before getting up to wash out the bowls of ice-cream.

The entire time he was getting ready for bed, Rhett couldn’t get his mind off of what he had found in the trashcan. Yeah, it was Sam, but Sam was Link… “Is Link…?” He shook his head to get rid of the ideas popping into his mind.

When he finally laid his head on a pillow, he closed his eyes and let out a long, drawn out sigh. It took him a while to doze off, but when he finally did, he was awoken almost immediately by a pressure next to him on the bed. At first, he thought it was Sam trying to cause more trouble. However, he couldn’t be sure. Link was sleepwalking, and he couldn’t tell if it was his best friend or one of his alters. Link curled up next to Rhett and began snoring, his head on his chest. Rhett couldn’t help but smile. He breathed in deeply the scent of Link’s hair. It warmed his heart to feel his friend’s soft skin against his own. It surprised him how natural it felt. Before he could dwell on the warm, fuzzy thoughts any longer, he slipped into a peaceful unconsciousness.


	13. Chapter 13

When Rhett finally awoke the next morning, Link was no longer in bed with him. He felt bad, but only because he wanted to surprise him with breakfast. He hoped the man was having a good morning so far. He climbed carefully out of the foreign bed and put on a sweater before padding down the hall into the kitchen.

“Link? Are you in here?” he called softly.

“Rhett, my eye hurts,” Link (Jake) whined.

Rhett saw the man stand up from the floor in front of the sink. His hand concealed a black eye. “Jake! What happened!?”

“Derrick got mad.”

“At you?”

The man merely shrugged as Rhett approached, pulling him into a gentle embrace. “Let me get you some ice to put on that. Do you want some Tylenol, too?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.” Rhett rushed around the kitchen, wrapping a few ice cubes in a wash cloth and pouring Link some apple juice. He handed both to Link as well as a couple of pain pills.

“Thank you,” he mumbled.

“Jake, can you tell me what Derrick was mad about?”

“I dunno what it means.”

“You don’t know what what means?”

“I heard him yelling about a…a…a boner… But I don’t know which one of us he was talking to or what he was even talkin’ about.”

“Oh, Jake,” Rhett sighed, resting his head in his hands. That poor, innocent kid… “So, wait. Did Derrick, like, punch—“

“Rhett?” he interrupted.

“What?”

“What’s a boner and why is it bad?”

Rhett suddenly became nauseous from his rising nerves. What was he supposed to say? “Well,” Rhett began with a sigh, “um… A… You get… A man can get an erection when they feel…good… And, uh—“

“WAIT, IS THAT WHEN SEX HAPPENS!?”

“Sometimes,” Rhett groaned, face turning red.

“But I thought sex was good…”

“Where’d you hear that!?” Rhett was shocked.

“There’s somebody I don’t know.”

“You mean, another alter?”

“Yeah.”

“Sam?”

“I dunno, maybe. I don’t know what they’re talking about most of the time, but they’re really nice to me.”

Rhett had mixed feelings about his friend’s current situation. “He’s nice to you?”

“It’s a he? I couldn’t really tell.”

“Yeah, Sam is a he,” Rhett said. He couldn’t help but crack a smile. “Jake, he’s nice, though?”

He nodded. “I like him better than Luke, now.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. He bought us a shirt!”

“Uh oh,” Rhett thought to himself.

“Do you wanna see!?” Jake said with a grin. It seemed like the pain killers were helping.

“Sure,” he said.

His friend ran off and returned a minute later holding what appeared to be a pink crop top. “It’s really small, but…what’s his name? Sam?” Rhett nodded. “It fits weird, but Sam likes it like that and it has dinosaurs on it! He bought some really weird clothes with it, but he said that this one was for both of us.”

Rhett couldn’t help but laugh. “I really like it, Jake.” So, Sam really wasn’t the one who stole Jake’s toy. Sam wasn’t trying to hurt anyone. It seemed like he was the one who had been infuriating Derrick the most. Rhett wondered if Link’s therapist had figured any of this out.

“God fucking dammit,” Rhett heard Link say.

“Oh, Sam?”

“That fucking asshole.”

“Who?”

“Derrick! Look what he did! It’s not like we got hard on purpose.”

“Was it you?”

“It was the body! It wasn’t any of us! I mean, maybe it was? I don’t fucking know how this shit works! He knows full well that Jake is going to have to deal with the pain. The poor boy didn’t do fucking shit! He’s out more than any of us lately. He shouldn’t be punished for something he didn’t do.” Link poked his eye socket softly, wincing. Rhett was trying to think of a response, but before he could, Link kept talking. “I knew climbing in bed with you was a bad idea.”

“So, it was you?”

“Yeah. It wasn’t some sneaky way of gettin’ nasty with you, though. I just wanted some nice touching. Nice, warm, physical contact. I’ve been lonely. We’ve all been lonely.”

“I get it,” Rhett mumbled.

“You’re gonna be seeing a lot more of me, big boy.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m gonna fight tooth and nail to keep that evil bastard out of here,” he said, waving his arms. “Between Jake, Link, Luke, and I, he’s gonna be stuck inside.”

Rhett clenched his jaw. The longer this went on, the more complicated it was getting. He was starting to believe that this really did have something to do with his relationship with Link. He knew that Link had another therapy appointment later that day, so he contemplated calling the woman and letting her know what theories he had come up with.


	14. Chapter 14

When he was alone, Rhett had opted to call Link’s therapist to tell her about his recent conversations with the man. He felt like some of them could potentially help with his treatment. Who knew what he was actually telling her? Jake could be the one interacting with her and only talking about toys and dinosaurs, after all.

“Alright, brother. I’m leaving now,” Link mumbled.

“Do you want me to stay here, or…?”

“Um…” The man was silent for a moment while he stared at the floor. “I mean…”

“You okay?”

“Yeah… Yeah, I’d like it if you were here when I get back.”

“No problem.”

“Thanks, man. See ya later.” He grabbed his keys and walked out of the house, leaving Rhett alone.

After a moment in an uncomfortable silence, Rhett was startled by the phone ringing. He rushed to pick it up and answered. “Hello, Neal residence…”

“Oh, Rhett?”

“Christy! Hey!”

“Is Link there?”

“Sorry, he just left for his therapy appointment.”

He heard a quiet sigh. “How’s he doing?”

“Uhhh… It’s…complicated. Sometimes he’s great and sometimes…not.”

“I feel like I should come over and see him. Do you think he’d be okay with that?”

“Well, that depends on—“

“Which alter is out.” Christy finished his sentence.

“Exactly. But, it might be worth a try.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah.”

“When he gets back, will you ask him if I can bring over some dinner?”

“Alright, sweetie. Will do. Take care, alright?”

“Thank you, Rhett. Hopefully I’ll see you tonight.”

“Bye.”

Rhett couldn’t help but immediately run through every possible situation that could happen with Christy in the house. If Link was okay with her coming over, it sure would be a roller coaster of a night. He couldn’t really focus on anything productive, so he laid down on the couch and watched some Kitchen Nightmares.

He hadn’t realized that he had fallen asleep until he was awakened by the sound of Link walking back into the house. He stood up and headed to the door to greet him. “Hey, man! What’s—“ He stopped when he saw that Link was crying softly. His head was down and he pushed his way past his friend and into the living room. “What’s wrong, Link?”

“You called her?”

“Your therapist?”

“Who else!?”

“Why are you mad?”

“I’m not mad because you called her. I’m mad because you didn’t tell me about Sam!”

Rhett’s heart skipped a beat. Why hadn’t he told him!? “I… I have no excuse. I am so sorry.”

“You forgot to mention that I stashed a bunch of lingerie and other junk under my bed!?”

“I didn’t know about that!”

“Oh, but you knew about the high heels and the mini skirt!”

Rhett blushed. “Yeah. I did.”

“Have I left the house—“

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Almost positive.”

The man nodded, removed his glasses, and wiped his eyes. “Thank you, Rhett.”

“Huh?”

Link shook his head in shame. “I’m not mad.”

“You have every right to be.”

“Nah, I mean it. It’s good that you called.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. She wants me to start a journal.”

“What kind of journal?”

“One that lets all of the alters talk to each other. She wants everyone to have a little space to write down their thoughts. That way, I can go through and read it all. I don’t think Derrick is gonna go for it, but…”

“It sounds like you’re making some real progress, Link.”

The shorter man cracked a smile. “If it weren’t for this black eye, I’d be feeling better than I have in a while.”

Rhett pulled his friend into a hug. “Hey, feel free to say no, but I talked to Christy earlier. She wants to bring dinner over for us. Are you okay with that?”

Link’s voice was muffled against the taller man’s chest. “I’d love that.” He stepped back, and the smile on his face warmed Rhett’s heart. “Do you know what she’s bringing?”

“No clue. But you know it’s gonna be good!”

Link let out a soft chuckle before walking down the hall. “I’m gonna take a quick shower,” he called back.

“Alright, brother. See ya in a bit.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Christy pulled Rhett into a side hug, careful not to drop the two large pizza boxes that were balancing precariously on her forearm. “It’s so great to see you again,” she smiled softly. “Where’s Link?”

“I think he’s in the bathroom. He should be out soon.”

“Okay. I’ll go put these in the kitchen.”

Rhett closed his eyes, silently praying that Link would be himself when he walked out of the bathroom. He’d feel so bad for the man if one of his alters took over before he could talk to his wife.

Sure enough, Link walked right up to Rhett and asked, “Did I hear Christy?”

“Yeah, she’s in the kitchen.”

A grin spread across his face and he wandered past his tall friend. “Christy, oh my gosh! I missed you so much,” he gasped, pulling her into a gentle embrace. “You look great.” They kissed briefly.

Rhett’s chest tightened up with emotion. He wasn’t sure which emotion was flooding his system, but whatever it was, he ignored it.

“I brought over some pizza,” Christy smiled, handing both her husband and Rhett a plate.

They both thanked her and the three adults helped themselves to soda and the hot pizza. Sitting around the kitchen table, they began their conversation as a light-hearted one, but inevitably, it turned serious.

After a moment of silence, Christy said, “I’m sorry I took the kids, Link.”

“Hey, don’t say that. Do you see my eye? I did that to myself. It’s good that they’re not here right now.”

She nodded. “You’re not mad?”

“Of course not. You did good.”

She smiled up at Link and then looked over to Rhett. “How have you been?”

“Eh, hanging in there. Link’s been a handful.”

Link let out a quiet, embarrassed laugh. Rhett was about to speak again when Link’s childlike voice filled the room. “Oh, you’re Link’s wife!”

Christy’s eyes grew wide and she looked over to Rhett. “It’s okay,” he mouthed silently.

“I’m Jake!”

“Um… Hi…”

“Did you bring over this pizza?” he asked. She nodded. “You’re really super nice. I get why Link likes you so much.” Christy couldn’t help but giggle.

“Hey, Jake?” Rhett said. “Why don’t you grab some more pizza for yourself?”

“Oh, I can have more?”

“Why not?”

He thought for a moment before shrugging. He grabbed his plate and wandered off into the other room. This gave Rhett the opportunity to lean in and whisper, “Jake’s one of his alters. He’s Lincoln’s age. There’s a few more… There’s—“

He was interrupted by Link’s voice coming from the kitchen. “Rhett? Can I have more soda, too?”

“Sure, buddy!” he called back.

“Thank you!”

Rhett leaned in again. “There’s Derrick, Sam, and Luke. Derrick is the violent one, Sam is… Well, you’ll know Sam when you see him. Luke isn’t anything too crazy. He’s just kind of intense.”

“That’s a lot to take in…”

“I know.”

Before any more words could be spoken, Jake was back. He slumped down in his chair and resumed eating his pizza. He looked back and forth between the other two people in the room and mumbled, with a full mouth, “Will you play with me?”

Christy glanced at Rhett, clearly trying not to laugh. “What do you want to play?” she asked hesitantly.

“I dunno. Something fun. How ‘booouuutt… Hmph.” He grumbled and put his forehead against the table.

“Are you okay?” Rhett asked.

“My belly’s upset,” he whined.

“You ate too much pizza, buddy!” Rhett said.

“Can I go lay down?” he muttered.

“Of course.” Link stood and started to clear his dishes, but Rhett took them. “I’ll take care of these. Go get in bed.”

Link surprised Rhett by pulling him into a tight bear hug before wandering down the hall.

“That is the weirdest thing I have ever seen,” Christy whispered.

“I know.”

“You’ve been dealing with this all by yourself!?”

“You haven’t seen the half of it. I’m willing to bet he’ll be back out here in a few minutes. Just not as Jake.”

“Who do you think it’ll be?”

“I have no idea.”


	15. Chapter 15

Rhett was chatting with Christy quietly on the couch in the living room. They didn’t want to be too loud, just in case the noise would bother Link. Just as Rhett had suspected, he heard footsteps approaching them from the hall.

“Alright. Who. The. FUCK. Let Jake eat so much fucking pizza!?”

Rhett leaned in closely to whisper into Christy’s ear. “Christy, meet Sam.” He was afraid to turn around.

“Oh! I’m sorry. I forgot we had a visitor!” Link ran around to the front of the couch. Rhett practically chocked on his own saliva. Either Sam or Jake had changed into the pink dinosaur crop top. He was also wearing some extremely skimpy boxers.

Christy’s jaw dropped. “Uh—“ she began.

“HOLY HAIR, BATMAN!” Link screeched, throwing his hands above his head. “Look at you, girl!” He jumped onto the couch next to her, sitting on his knees.

“M…Me?” she stammered.

“Oh, hon. Who did these curls!?” Sam started petting the woman.

“I did…”

“That shit is curled for the gods, hunty! DAMN, JAKE GOT STRAIGHT JACKED ON CAFFEINE! WOOO!”

“Shit, Sam! Calm down!” Rhett bellowed.

“What does that even mean…?” Christy mumbled.

“Don’t worry, girl. It’s a compliment.” He threw an arm around Christy. “So, what were you guys doing in here without me?”

“Just chatting,” Rhett sighed.

“Y’all are boring as fuck. Christy?”

“Yeah?”

“Can I do your makeup? I bought a TON of stuff from the MAC store down at The Grove. Can we play? Please? I haven’t even tried asking this loser over here.” He pointed to Rhett.

“WHEN DID YOU BUY MAKEUP!?” Rhett yelled.

“Oh, stop being a party pooper, Rhett,” Christy laughed. Rhett raised an eyebrow. “I’d love to play with some makeup, Sam.”

“Oh, girl. Your face ‘bout to get dusted, LEMME TELL YA!” He leapt from the couch and ran off, the sound of somebody digging through cupboards filling the home.

“What does that mean?” she whispered to nobody in particular.

“Christy—“ Rhett started.

“So, Sam is…” 

“He’s a self-proclaimed ladyboy.”

She snickered. “Wow.”

“Just be careful, Link didn’t know Sam existed until this morning.”

“Really?” she asked, disbelieving.

“Yeah.”

Before Rhett could say anything else, Link came waddling back into the room carrying a mountain of makeup. There were so many things in his arms that it all had to have cost at least a couple hundred dollars. “Play time!” he sang.

“SAM! Where’d you get the money for all of that!?” Rhett was scared to find out.

“I used some funds from your little ‘business’ or whatever it is that you and Link do.”

“YOU WHAT!?” he bellowed.

“Oh shut up. I know you two do music videos and commercials and shit. As long as I’m still around, you don’t need to hire any make-up artists.” He winked and sat down on the couch with Christy again. “Now, either you let me do your makeup, too, or you scram, Mister.”

He felt like he should probably stay just in case Derrick came out to ‘play.’ However, staying meant letting Sam make him look like a drag queen. Rhett sighed. “Alright. Fine. I’ll stay.”

“Ooooh myyy God,” Link said, mouth wide open. “Did he really just say that!?”

Christy nodded vigorously. “Rhett, I think you need to call Jessie and get her in on this.”

“Wait, who’s Jessie?” Sam asked.

“My wife.”

“OH! Rhett, tell her to come over. We’re having a girl’s night!”

Rhett shot Christy a look as if to say, “Why did you have to say that?” He knew that there was no arguing, so he excused himself to call his wife. He warned her, but Jessie wanted to come over anyway.

Once the four adults were sitting on the couch, Sam had Christy and Jessie tie Rhett down so he couldn’t ‘escape.’ The two women happily obliged.

“Alright, who wants to go first?” Sam asked, clapping his hands.

He started with Christy, then made-up Jessie. They were both giggling at their faces in the mirror, admiring his handy work. “Link, uh, I mean, Sam… We look awesome,” Jessie mused.

“Well, duh!”

The two women laughed. “Your turn, Rhett!” Jessie giggled, punching him in the arm.

He tried to wiggle free from the tie they had used to bind his wrists. “I’d really rather not.”

“Would you rather do my makeup?” Sam asked.

“Yeah. I would, actually.”

“YAY! Okay, fine.” He untied Rhett’s hands and switched places with the man. “You better make me look fierce as fuck.”

“I’ll… Uh… I’ll try, I guess.”

Christy and Jessie were both having a blast. They poured themselves a couple of glasses of wine. Still as a statue, Link was now Rhett’s canvas. Rhett was really struggling to make his work look decent. He was afraid to find out what Sam would do to him if he messed up too badly.

He was almost finished when Link batted the makeup brush from Rhett’s hand. “Jake!?”

“I’m not a girl,” he mumbled, his eyes filled with discomfort and panic.

“Oh, we were just—“

“I’m not a girl,” he repeated, this time a little louder.

The women grew silent, glancing back and forth between the two men and one another nervously. Rhett placed a hand on each of Link’s shoulders. “Sam wanted to—“

This time, Jake screamed. “I’M NOT A GIRL!” He fell onto the floor and suddenly, tears were streaming down his face, causing the makeup to become a muddy mess. It was normal for boys to be uncomfortable in girly things, but this was utter distress.

“Woah! Jake! Hey, buddy! Calm down!” Rhett got down on his hands and knees, trying to wrap a comforting arm around his friend.

“NO! Don’t touch me!” he shrieked, flailing.

“Jake, shhh. It’s okay,” Rhett kept repeating.

The man was having none of it, however. He was panicking trying to wipe the makeup from his face. “Go away,” he kept telling Rhett forcefully.

“Just let me help you clean off your face, buddy,” he said, voice quavering. Rhett leaned in with a paper towel, but once again, Jake slapped his hand away.

“NO! I want Christy to do it,” he mumbled, not making eye contact with anyone.

“How come?” he asked. Jake just shook his head.

“Alright, hon,” Christy hesitated. She took the moist paper towel from Rhett and sat in front of her husband. “I’ll help you out.”

When she was finished, Jake sniffled and mumbled, “I’m sleepy. Will you cuddle with me?”

She couldn’t help but let out a quiet laugh. “Of course.” She helped the man stand and walked into the bedroom with him.

“What the hell just happened?” Jessie asked as soon as she was alone with her husband.

Rhett shook his head. “Jake is… Well, I don’t know. It’s rare, but occasionally I’ll do something that causes him to panic.”

“Do you have any idea why?”

“Not a clue.”


	16. Chapter 16

It took a little while, but eventually, Christy walked back into the living room. She had a strange expression on her face. “That was…” Her sentence trailed off.

“What happened in there?” Rhett asked quietly.

As she sat down next to Jessie, she scratched her head. “He put his head on my chest and was trying to stop crying. And then just before he fell asleep, he said, ‘It scares me when people treat me like a girl.’”

“What?” both Jessie and Rhett said simultaneously. Christy shrugged in response.

Rhett shook his head. He let his mind wander. He was extremely frustrated with the situation—more so than before, at least. He felt like the answer to Link’s problems was right in front of him, but he couldn’t see it. He wished he could climb into Link’s head. They’d spent so much time together that they almost always knew what the other was thinking. This new experience was terrifying. He needed to help Link—to pull him from his bizarre internal prison.

Rhett left the room to clean up from dinner while the two women washed the garish makeup from their faces. “There’s something seriously wrong here,” he thought to himself. He then rolled his eyes, realizing how stupid he sounded. Of course there was something seriously wrong! They’d all known that for a long time. It was just that there was something deeper than Rhett expected. He originally thought that maybe Link got hit or something. But it was becoming more and more apparent that there was something much deeper than that tormenting him without the man even realizing it himself. The fact that he knew something had happened within the last couple of months to trigger it almost bothered him the most. Could it have been his fault? Could it all be his fault?

He hadn’t noticed Jessie and Christy approaching him from behind. He jumped when he heard his wife say, “We’re going to go back to the house, honey. Christy is bringing the kids over for a slumber party so they can have some fun together.”

“Alright. Goodnight.” He kissed his wife and hugged Christy before they left the house.

Once again left in a lonely silence, Rhett stood awkwardly, unsure what to do with himself. Rhett wanted to talk to Link. “No,” he thought. He needed to talk to Link.

He slowly walked down the hall to the man’s bedroom, knocking on the doorframe loud enough to wake him up, but quiet enough to not startle him.

“Mmmm,” he groaned, slowly turning over and opening his eyes. “Rhett?”

“Hey, sorry to wake you up. You just kind of scared us earlier. I wanted to make sure that you were okay.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Do you—“

“No, I have no idea what happened.”

“Okay.” Rhett nodded. He wasn’t sure what to say next, but he didn’t want to leave.

“Hey, Rhett?” Link asked shyly.

“Yeah?”

“Um… Will you… Can you… Um…” he stammered. “Sorry. Nevermind.” Link rolled over so his back was to Rhett.

“What is it?”

“I was gonna ask you to do something, but it’s stupid.”

“I’ll do anything, brother.”

Link laughed quietly to himself. “Alright, I warned you. Would you mind, maybe, rubbing my back? You know, just so I can relax enough to fall asleep again.”

“Oh…” Rhett raised his eyebrows in surprise. Link was never one to ask for physical affection—from him, at least. “Uh, yeah, man. Of course. Just let me put on some sweat pants first.”

“Thanks, Rhett,” Link sighed, snuggling into his pillow.

If he didn’t know better, he would have thought that this was Sam talking. He remembered what the alter had said to him: “I’ve been lonely. We’ve all been lonely.” Of course Link was lonely. Nobody knew what he was dealing with. Hell, he didn’t even know. He felt like he really couldn’t talk to anybody other than his therapist about it.

Rhett crawled in bed next to Link. He hesitated at first, but then let his hands wander freely up and down his friend’s back. The man’s muscles tightened for a moment before melting to the touch. The warm, smooth skin against Rhett’s fingertips felt so amazing that it was shocking. Link sighed deeply, clearly already asleep. Rhett, however, didn’t stop his actions. The ever so slight movement that Link’s breathing caused in his muscles was enough to pull Rhett into a trance. He realized suddenly that he thought Link was beautiful. The sleeping man was practically glowing as far as Rhett was concerned.

He wasn’t sure what to do. Part of him wanted to get closer to his friend. He wanted to wrap his arms around him tightly and never let go. But his rational mind told him to get up, brush his teeth, and sleep on the couch. So, being the rational man that he was, he did the latter.


	17. Chapter 17

Rhett awoke to a finger lightly poking him on the shoulder. Link was hovering above him. It only took a moment for Rhett’s tired mind to register that Jake was the one who was in control. “Hey, buddy,” he croaked, sitting upright on the couch.

“Will you make me pancakes?” he asked softly, not making eye contact with the man. Rhett figured it was probably because he was still uneasy after what happened the night before.

“We don’t have the ingredients…”

“Can you take me to IHOP?”

Rhett laughed. “You really want pancakes, don’t you?” Jake’s face twisted into a shy smile and he nodded. Rhett thought for a moment. As long as he walked on eggshells around his friend, he was relatively confident that going out in public would be okay. He just needed to set some ground rules. “Okay, Jake. We can go to IHOP.”

“REALLY!?”

“Yeah. You just need to promise me something.”

“Anything!”

“If somebody recognizes Link, please go back and let Link out.”

He nodded vigorously. “I promise.”

“Good. Let’s go get ready.”

Link skipped back to his bedroom to get dressed and Rhett did the same. After styling his hair and pulling on a grey hoodie, he wandered to the front door. There was Link, holding his G.I. Joe action figure. Rhett bit his lip. Should he let Jake bring that? It might look weird for a grown man to be carrying around a toy without a child with him… “Are you ready, Rhett?”

“Uh, yeah. Yeah. Let’s go, buddy.”

The two men got into the car and as Rhett pulled out of the driveway, his heart began racing. He was taking Link into public for the first time since this all started. Sam had gone out to the mall a few times, but other than that and going to the studio, he was almost positive that the man had been stuck in his home. The night before was insane, but he hoped that Link’s alters could keep it together now.

“What kind of pancakes should I get, Rhett?” Jake asked, snapping Rhett out of his own head.

“I don’t know, Jake! Whatever you want!” he said, trying his best to sound as cheerful as possible.

“Wait, really? ANYTHING?”

“Sure.”

“Even chocolate!?”

Rhett smiled. “Yeah, even chocolate.”

“Can I get chocolate milk, too?”

“Jake, if you do that, you’re going to upset your stomach again,” he said in his “dad voice.”

“What if I eat the pancakes and drink my milk and then let Derrick come out so he has to deal with the belly ache?”

Rhett couldn’t help but let out a loud, boisterous laugh. He had to admit, that wasn’t a bad idea. “Just order whatever you want.”

“Mhmm.”

Despite it being right in the middle of the morning commute time, they got to the nearest IHOP pretty quickly. Just as he said he would, Jake ordered the chocolate chip pancake on the menu that had a smiley face made out of whipped cream. Rhett ordered some plain pancakes and a bunch of bacon.

“You’re boring,” Jake sneered.

“Hey, if I tried to eat what you’re about to, there will be vomit.”

“If I need to puke, I’m gonna make Derrick deal with it.”

“Good plan.”

They ate their food quickly, and much to Rhett’s surprise, Jake’s entire meal was gone. He accidentally let out a loud burp, drawing the attention of every table in the surrounding area. Both men couldn’t help but begin laughing. Rhett could see somebody from the corner of his eye wearing a Good Mythical Morning shirt, so he paid for the meal quickly and they got back into the car.

“Thanks for the pancakes, Rhett!” Jake beamed.

“No problem, buddy. That was a good idea. Are you feeling okay?”

“Ummm…” He thought hard for a moment. “Yeah. I think so.”

“Well, tell me if you’re gonna throw up so I can pull over or something.”

“Okay.”

Halfway home, Link shifted his weight. “Where were we, and why do I feel so full?”

“Jake wanted to get pancakes. He ate a shit-ton.”

Link groaned. “That kid is killing me with the food,” he said, referencing the olives from the studio. He then looked down and noticed the G.I. Joe sitting in his lap. “Carrying toys around, too?”

“Yep…normal little boy in a grown man’s body.”

Link nodded, but didn’t say a word. As soon as the two men got back to the house, Link made a bee line for his cellphone.

“Who are you texting?” Rhett asked in passing.

“My therapist.”

“Why?”

Link just shook his head in dismissal. He had a strange look on his face. “It’s not…important.” He looked like he wanted to say something else, but the doorbell rang. “What the…” he mumbled under his breath. He finished sending his text and then wandered to the door, looking out the window. “Apparently I ordered something…”

Rhett sighed. “Well, I guess bring it in and open it.”

“I don’t know if I want to.”

“Come on, man! It might be funny,” Rhett offered, trying to lighten the mood. It was amazing how quickly the environment could switch now. Link shrugged and opened the door, grabbing the box.

“Well, it’s not too heavy,” he acknowledged. The two men wandered into the kitchen and Link dropped his package on the table. Just as Link reached for a pair of scissors, his face grew stern. He removed his glasses quickly. “I think I should be the one to open this. There’s some stuff in here that I know Link won’t want to see.”

“Luke?”

“Long time no see, huh?”

“So, you know what’s in there?”

“I let everyone pick out one thing.”

“Oh. Really?”

“Something for Jake, Derrick, Sam, and Link.”

“Link chose something?”

“Oh. No, he doesn’t know about this.”

He opened the box and began pulling objects out. There was a plastic dinosaur for Jake and a red snapback that had the word “ANGRY” on it for Derrick.

“I don’t think he’s going to like that very much,” Rhett suggested.

“He picked it out, remember?” Luke said matter-of-factly.

“What’d Sam get?”

Luke looked Rhett in the eye and said, “Do you really want to know?”

“I… Um… Do I?”

Luke snorted. “Probably not.” He pulled it out anyway. Rhett wanted to faint or throw up the mountain of bacon he had just consumed. Standing before him was the image of his best friend holding an enormous pink fluorescent dildo with a completely stone-cold expression gracing his face. Luke cracked a half-hearted smile. “I warned you.”

“So, uh,” Rhett choked, voice cracking. “What did you get for Link?”

“I ordered him a book.” Taking it out of the box, he handed it to Rhett.

“’Got Parts?: An Insider’s Guide to Managing Life Successfully with Dissociative Identity Disorder,’” Rhett said under his breath as he read the title out loud. He turned the book over and skimmed the description. “’This book is filled with successful coping techniques and strategies to enhance the day-to-day functioning of adult survivors of DID in relationships, work, parenting, self-confidence, and self-care.’”

“I thought it might be of use to him. You can tell him you bought it for him. It’ll make him happy.”

“No. I’m not taking the credit for that. I mean, he technically bought it for himself.”

“Hm, very true.”

Rhett placed the book on the table next to the hat and dinosaur. “Um, would you, maybe, put Sam’s…toy…with his other stuff?”

“Sure.” He left the room.

Rhett picked up the book again and flipped through it. He knew for a fact that as soon as Link found it, he wouldn’t be able to put it down. Rhett then noticed that Link had been gone for a while. He was about to go find Link in his room, but then he remembered why he was in there in the first place. He didn’t want to stumble upon anything he wasn’t…supposed to.

“Yo, Rhett!” He heard Sam’s voice call from down the bedroom. “Did you see what I got in the mail!?”

“Uh, yeah! I did, actually!”

“Does it look like you?”

Rhett clenched his jaw. “What are you doing in there?”

“Nothing right now! Do you want to make that change!?”

“Can’t say that I do!”

There was silence for a moment before a loud crash echoed throughout the house. Rhett sprinted down the hall and threw open the door. He ducked quickly, an object flying towards him too fast for his mind to register what it was. “OUT!” the man shrieked.

“Derrick, what are you doing!?”

“GET OUT OF THIS DAMN HOUSE! YOU’RE RUINING EVERYTHING!”

“What are you talking about!?”

There was no verbal response, but an extremely violent physical one. Rhett, being much larger than Link, was easily able to overpower him. He pinned the man on the ground. Struggling to break loose, Derrick was writhing around under him. Rhett was praying that Jake wouldn’t come out. The poor boy would have a heart attack.

Rhett grunted in surprise when he noticed the warmth building up in his lower abdomen. In the struggle, the other man’s ass was grinding up against his groin. Rhett wanted desperately to roll off of him, but knew that if he did, there would be destruction…maybe even injury. Rhett kept his eyes closed shut, trying his best to not focus on his growing arousal.

When Derrick finally stopped wiggling, Rhett relaxed his muscles with a long sigh. Just as he was about to get up, he heard Sam. “Wowza!” he exclaimed.

Before anything could happen, Rhett leapt up off of the floor. “Was all of that your fault?”

Sam took a step closer to Rhett. Before he could do anything, his friend’s hand was cupping his crotch. His breath hitched in his throat, eliciting a giggle from Sam. “Do you mean was this my fault?” he asked.

“Stop, Sam!” Rhett swiped his hand away. “You really need to stop.”

He took a step back and sat on the edge of the bed. “What’s it going to take?” he sighed.

“Nothing is going to happen!” Rhett insisted. Sam didn’t respond, which greatly surprised Rhett. He always had some flirty comment ready to escape his mouth. “Nothing is going to happen,” Rhett repeated, voice quieter this time.

“Why not?” Sam mumbled, clearly upset. “What could go wrong?”

“WHAT COULD GO WRONG!?” Rhett was shocked. “What COULDN’T go wrong!? What if Jake were to come out in the middle of—“ he stopped himself midsentence, mentally kicking himself. “Doing anything would be not only cheating on Jessie, but much worse, taking advantage of Link.”

Sam smirked. “But, I am Link,” he said with a wink.

“Stop it, Sam. Nothing is going to happen.”

The man shrugged. “Let’s see how long that lasts.”


	18. Chapter 18

While making himself lunch, Rhett realized that the food supply was running low. After he ate, he went to find Link in his room taking a nap. Every time a particularly intense situation came up, Link became extremely drained. Rhett walked over and gently shook him awake.

“Link, I’m gonna run to the grocery store. I’ll be back soon.”

Link pulled the covers up over his head and moaned, “Okay.”

Rhett patted him on the back and left. He didn’t really have a list of things to get, so he just wandered the store’s many aisles aimlessly. He bought some olives for Jake, and then came across a box of pancake mix. It was inevitable that the boy would want pancakes again, and not wanting to drive all the way to IHOP, Rhett decided to get some. He bought some bread, fruit, vegetables, and candy—enough food to last for weeks.

When he was finally satisfied with the contents of his shopping cart, he paid for the items and lugged everything back to the car. It took him a little while to get back to Link’s house. After he got all of the plastic bags onto the kitchen counters, he realized that the fridge was slightly ajar. “What the?” he whispered under his breath. He was quiet, listening for any noise from other rooms. Suddenly, the sound of glass shattering rang throughout the home.

Rhett sprang into action. He ran to the nearest room: the living room. Sure enough, Link was sitting on the couch, head back, mouth open, eyes closed, and arms lying loosely to his sides. There was a broken bottle of beer on the floor in front of him. “Link!?” No response. Was he even breathing!? Rhett felt as if his heart stopped. Panic washed over his entire being. He kneeled down on the floor in front of his friend and placed his hands on each of his legs. “Link, buddy, wake up, please!”

A soft groan escaped the troubled man’s throat. “Nooo.” In his current state, it was impossible to tell which alter was speaking, or if it was Link himself.

“Come on, man. Talk to me!” Rhett patted Link’s thigh. “Open your eyes, man. Look at me,” Rhett insisted. He felt like he was going to have a heart attack. Should he call 911?

Link turned his head and began gagging. Rhett pulled him up and began dragging him towards the bathroom. Unfortunately, they didn’t make it. The smell alone almost made Rhett himself vomit. In a split second, Link began sobbing uncontrollably.

“Link? Link! C’mon man! Calm down! How much did you drink!?”

“Go away, man! Let me just lay here!” he slurred.

“I’m not letting you pass out in your own puke, brother. Just tell me how much you drank!”

“I dunno. Lots.”

“I can tell…” Rhett practically carried Link back to the couch. “What’s wrong, man?”

“Who even am I? I can’t handle the voices. MAKE IT STOP!” he shrieked, gripping his hair tightly.

Rhett grabbed Link’s wrists and held them down tightly so he couldn’t hurt himself. “Link, calm down. Please.”

He fell slack again, tears still streaming down his drunken face. Rhett wrapped his arms around his friend and began stroking his head. Link sniffled. “Rhett, I love you, man. I really really love you. Like, really.”

“I know, buddy. I love you too.”

“Why are you so great?”

“I’m just taking care of you,” Rhett sighed.

“I just… I…” Link groaned and his head fell to the side.

“Link? Are you awake?” The man had passed out.

Rhett sat with him for a little while, just to make sure he was alright. He figured it was a good sign that Link was snoring loudly and that he wasn’t breathing irregularly. He left the couch to clean up the vomit in the hallway. “What the hell happened while I was gone?” he asked himself quietly. Maybe nothing happened. Link’s alters were out more often that Link himself, so maybe this side of him had been buried deep inside of his mind. Maybe this side hadn’t had the time to escape.

“You,” he heard Link growl from behind him. “I told you to leave.”

Rhett turned slowly. “D…Derrick?” he muttered. He gasped when he saw a shard of the broken beer bottle in his hand.

“Why are you still here?”

“I… Uh… I…”

Link took a few steps forward, holding up the large piece of glass. “You’re fucking everything up. We were okay. Haven’t you noticed? The longer you’re here, the worse things get. You need to go. NOW.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Derrick. Put the glass down,” Rhett pleaded.

The man lunged at him. It took all of Rhett’s strength to keep the hand gripping the glass away from his face. The two men rolled around on the ground for an excruciating amount of time, each fighting for control. Finally, Derrick stood. “Fine. If you’re not leaving, then we will.”

“Wait, stop. What are you talking about? Derrick, don’t!” Rhett bellowed as the other man lifted the piece of glass up to his own neck. “Stop, Derrick! Talk to me! What are you doing?”

He shook his head. “This needs to stop. It’s over, Rhett. You don’t deserve to be in Link’s presence. You’re not good for him. I’m done with Sam. I’m done with you. And if I can’t get you to leave, then there’s only one other option.” The most terrifying smile Rhett had ever witnessed spread across his friend’s face.

“Derrick, but if you do that, you’ll be gone, too.”

“What’s your point? This therapy bullshit is trying to get rid of me, anyway. Either way, I’m dead…might as well take the rest of these fucking losers with me.”

Rhett felt as if he was going to vomit. He had never been so scared in his life. He thought his heart was going to beat right out of his chest. This was truly a life or death situation. Link could literally die if he didn’t somehow get that glass away from him. “Derrick, please!”

“Fuck you. I swear to god, if you don’t leave this house right this second, I’m going to slit your god damn throat, and then Link’s.”

“I’m not leaving, Derrick.” Rhett carefully stood up, making sure that Derrick wouldn’t make a sudden, unexpected move.

The man once again approached Rhett, but now that he knew what was coming, he managed to stop his advance. Rhett twisted Link’s arm around so that he couldn’t move. After a moment, the glass came down hard on the floor, breaking up into many smaller pieces. Derrick was fighting as hard as he could to get free, but Rhett wasn’t letting go. He wouldn’t until he knew for sure that Derrick was gone. When the struggling stopped, Rhett loosened his grip slightly.

“Rhett,” he heard Link squeak.

“Link, buddy, come on. You need to lay down.”

“I love you, Rhett. Don’t let me die,” he whimpered.

“I’m not gonna let you die, man.” Rhett didn’t know how, but for some reason, Link couldn’t walk straight again. If it weren’t for the broken glass on the floor, he would have thought he dreamt the whole ordeal.

Rhett started to drag Link into his bedroom, but thought better of it. Instead, he laid his friend back down on the couch. That way, he could keep a careful eye on him. Rhett waited for Link to slip into unconsciousness again, and when he did, Rhett snapped. He fell to his knees and began releasing shuddering sobs. His entire body was shaking. He had almost just watched Link slit his own throat. He decided that he would sit in the corner of the living room, watching Link, until he was absolutely sure the man was safe. Rhett closed his eyes and rested his head in his hands. His best friend wasn’t even safe in his own body, and that was terrifying.


	19. Chapter 19

Rhett had no idea when it was that he fell asleep, but when he awoke to the sight of an empty couch, he immediately flew into a panic. Before he could move, however, he was surprised to see Link sitting next to him, looking at the floor.

“Link, man, what are you doing!?”

“Rhett?”

“Oh, Jake. How long have—“

“I don’t feel good.”

Shit. Hangover. “Okay, buddy. Um…”

“I threw up.”

“In the toilet?”

“Yeah.”

Rhett breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t have to clean up anymore puke. “Okay, well that’s good at least.” Rhett stood and helped his friend up. The shorter man moved in for a hug so slowly that it seemed like he was stuck in syrup. Rhett rubbed circles on his back. “Go sit on the couch, buddy. I’ll help you out.”

Without a word, Jake turned and wandered over to the couch. Rhett hurried to get as many hangover remedies that he could think of, as well as some easy to digest food to fill his friend’s empty stomach. He made some toast, got some pain killers, poured a bowl of frosted mini-wheats, got some alka seltzer, and a bottle of Gatorade.

When Rhett re-entered the living room, Jake had his legs pulled up against his chest, his forehead resting on his knees. “This should help you feel better,” he said softly, placing the items on the coffee table. He sat next to his friend and handed him the bowl of cereal.

“Thanks,” he mumbled. After taking a bite, he said, “Can we watch Netflix?”

“Sure, Jake. What do you want to watch?” He merely shrugged, so Rhett turned on the television to begin searching for something that might cheer the boy up.

“OOO!” Jake squealed, seeing something he wanted to watch on the menu. He groaned and gripped his head. His sudden high-pitched vocalization caused his piercing headache to worsen momentarily. 

Rhett felt guilty for laughing, but he couldn’t help it. He set down the remote and handed his friend the painkillers and Gatorade. “Here.”

The pills were gone almost immediately, and then Jake pointed at the screen. “Can we watch Hercules?”

“Disney. Good choice. Sure thing, bud.” Rhett turned on the movie and sat back, putting his feet up. “Oh,” he said. “If you feel like you’re going to throw up again, let me know so I can go get a bowl.”

“Okay, Rhettie.” Jake snuggled up to the larger man and nuzzling against him.

Rhett smiled softly. They sat together in silence, enjoying the light hearted yet dramatic movie. Rhett was almost positive that Link had seen the movie once, twice max, yet somehow, Jake was able to quote almost every one of Hercules’ lines as well as sing along to all of the musical numbers. It really did warm Rhett’s heart to see. It was extremely disturbing at the same time, however. Just a few hours ago, Link was trying to drink himself to death and Derrick was in a suicidal/homicidal rage. Now, he was cuddling on the couch with the same person watching cartoons.

Jake did need to throw up a couple more times, but it was obvious that as time wore on, he was feeling better. About three-quarters of the way through the movie, Rhett noticed that his friend had dozed off, still leaning against his shoulder. Careful not to wake the sleeping man, he peeled himself off of the couch and took the dishes into the kitchen. He rinsed out the vomit and put everything in the dishwasher to clean later.

It wasn’t long before Rhett heard the credits begin to roll. He turned off the TV and roused his sleeping friend. He wasn’t sure who would be in control when he awoke, so he was extra cautious. He was extremely relieved when it was still Jake who greeted him. “Why’d you turn the movie off?” he croaked.

“It was over. You fell asleep.”

The look on Link’s face was one of utter disappointment. “Oh…”

“You can watch the ending later, Jake. I think you should get in bed. You need to sleep longer.”

He nodded reluctantly. As he stood, he wandered down the hallway, but entered Lincoln’s room. Rhett raised an eyebrow. He was about to question the man’s motives when he returned to the hall with a big stegosaurus plushy. “Will you sing me a song so I can fall asleep, Rhett?” he asked.

Rhett looked to the floor. “Yeah, sure, man.” They walked together into the man’s bedroom.

He helped Jake climb under the covers before going around to the other side of the bed, sitting on the edge. Jake turned so that he was able to look Rhett in the eye. “Will you sing me that one song?”

Rhett laughed softly. “Which one?”

“The one from the movie.”

“From Hercules?” Jake nodded. “Which song?”

“The song about belonging.”

The request wrenched Rhett’s heart. He remembered the song well, surprisingly. He usually wasn’t too good at learning a song after the first listen, but this particular one stuck out to him. The one particular song that Jake (Link?) wanted him to sing was a song about feeling the need to belong—to feel normal in society. Before he even began singing, Rhett could feel himself starting to get choked up. “Yeah, buddy. I can sing that,” he whispered.

It took him a moment to remember how it started, but once he began, the words came to him easily. Clutching to Lincoln’s stuffed dinosaur, Jake drifted off slowly. As Rhett softly uttered the line, “Somehow I’ll be strong,” he noticed that Jake was fully asleep. He placed a gentle hand on Link’s shoulder. Thinking about the words to the song while staring at Link, lying there so peacefully, a single tear escaped Rhett’s left eye. He laughed silently to himself, thinking about how silly he must have looked. He sighed before leaving the room. He wasn’t sure how he was going to occupy himself, but he’d manage.


	20. Chapter 20

Sitting on the couch, Rhett sighed deeply. The tension that had built up within him was overwhelming, and he craved relief. He turned on the television and flipped it back to Netflix, looking for something to distract him from the day’s events. He settled on the first thing that he saw: Batman. Rhett just couldn’t bring himself to focus on any of the dialogue. Almost involuntarily, his eyes drifted shut. There was always one sure-fire way of getting his mind off of something. He inhaled slowly and moved a hand to his crotch. Immediately he felt his muscles relax. He did feel awkward—even guilty—when he began to pleasure himself through his jeans in Link’s home after what had happened, but at the same time, he was positive that it’d make his mind and body feel better—if only for a short time. And considering the storm raging in his friend’s mind, Rhett needed to stay as grounded as he could. The growing warmth enveloped his soul, making it impossible for him to worry about anything. He began to doze off.

Deep within the void between reality and the dream world, images and fantasies began swimming in and out of his mind’s eye. He visualized a dancing silhouette in front of him, unable to make out any features. The figure was slowly turning and rolling their hips. It was torture for Rhett to watch. As the figure faded away, it was replaced by blackness and the feeling of soft lips against his own, moving in the same pace that he was rubbing himself. He was snapped out of his trance when he heard a loud slam. It took him a moment to become aware of his surroundings. Rubbing his eyes, he stood. Wandering into Link’s bedroom, he was surprised to see that the man was not there. Rhett spent the next 15 or so minutes checking and re-checking every room in the house for Link. As the seconds wore on, the panic deep within Rhett became more intense. He ended his search of the house after yelling out for Jake, thinking that maybe the boy was trying to get him to play hide-and-seek.

Rhett ran for his cellphone and called everyone he could think of. Nobody had heard from the man. He would have tried calling Link, but his cellphone was still sitting on the counter. Rhett ran outside and jumped in his car, starting it up as fast as he could manage. He started driving before he even had an idea of where to go. The one place that he could think to go was the studio. That had to be where he was, right? As he drove, Rhett scanned the rest of the traffic for Link’s car. He was sure he was speeding most of the trip, but he didn’t care.

The man was trembling. He was worried that the longer Link was gone, the more likely it was that he’d seriously hurt himself. It only took about 10 minutes to arrive at the studio, but it felt like years to Rhett. His heart jumped when he spotted Link’s car in the small parking lot. Rhett threw open his car door and jumped out, running into the building.

“Link!? Link, where are you!?” he shrieked, sprinting throughout the studio. He stopped suddenly when he ran into the set, greeted by the sight of Link sitting at their desk, staring blankly ahead. “Link?” he asked, panting. “Link, what are you doing?”

The man merely stared ahead, tapping an index finger rhythmically on the wood. The eerie sight was like a scene from a horror movie. The hairs on the back of Rhett’s neck stood. “I had to get away,” Link uttered, his voice barely audible.

“Luke, is that you?”

“Yes.”

“Why’d you leave?”

“Staying any longer would have proved disastrous.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean, why?” Link turned his head, staring up at Rhett. He had an eyebrow raised in a quizzical manner. “Derrick almost killed you. And Link.”

“Yeah, but Jake was doing fine, and then Link was asleep.”

Luke sniggered. “Right.”

“Why are you laughing!?”

The man shook his head, slowly rising to his feet. “Listen. Let’s just say, Sam woke up.”

Rhett had no idea what Luke was saying at first, but then the truth hit him like a ton of bricks. The lips weren’t in his imagination. “Wait, do you mean—“

“He couldn’t help it. I don’t blame him. You were kind of asking for it. I made sure we got out of there before anything else happened.”

“What have you been doing here?”

“Sitting.”

“That’s it?”

“If I had let Link stay in that house, things would have gotten a lot worse than they did.”

Rhett had to sit down on the black loveseat, afraid that his legs would give out otherwise. Resting his head in the palm of his hands, he said, “Thank you, Luke.”

He shrugged. “It’s my job.” The man sat down next to Rhett. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. I guess.”

There was a heavy silence in the room for what felt like an eternity, until the alter that never failed to lighten the mood showed up. “Oh, Rhett! Why are we here?”

“Hey, buddy. We just kinda wound up here.”

“Is Eddie here?”

“Nope, it’s just us. Why?”

“His arms are cool. I want a tattoo.”

“Link has a tattoo, yanno…” Rhett said, a small smile forming.

“What!? Where!?” Jake’s eyes widened.

“On his butt.”

The laughter that filled the room was contagious. “Nuh uh. You’re lying!”

“I’m not!” Rhett stood and had Jake follow him into the bathroom. He signaled for him to lower one side of his pants.

“OH MY GOD! HE GOT ‘CHRISTY’ TATTOOED ON HIS BUTT?”

“Yeah, and I’ve got my wife’s name in the same place.”

Jake’s giggles sounded exactly like Link’s from the cassette tape they played on Good Mythical Morning years ago. If Rhett closed his eyes, he could easily convince his body that he was back in that bedroom pretending to be Minnie Pearl. His train of thought was interrupted when Jake asked, “Can we film a Good Mythical Morning, Rhett?”

“I dunno, buddy…”

“Please? Will you call Stevie and Alex and Eddie and Jen so we can have fun?”

Rhett sighed. He was exhausted and wanted to get some real time alone, maybe even sleep for a bit. Leaving Link with the interns would give him the chance to take a nap on the pull-out couch in the office… “Alright,” he said. “I’ll see if they can come over.”


	21. Chapter 21

Although he wasn’t able to make out any words, Rhett was able to hear Link on the set with Eddie, Alex, and Stevie. They were clearly having a good time together. To Jake’s disappointment, Jen was busy and couldn’t come ‘play.’

Rhett had decided to leave the four others downstairs while he read through some comments on the many social media sites. The comments he kept seeing brought mixed emotions. Everyone seemed to be genuinely worried for Link. Rhett felt bad that they were upsetting so many fans, but knowing how much everyone cared for his friend made him want to smile. It reassured him that the Mythical Beasts would still be there when they returned…if they returned…

His cellphone began ringing, which startled him. Christy’s name flashed across his screen. “Hey,” Rhett mumbled, still scrolling through Twitter.

“Rhett?”

The man wasn’t expecting to hear Lincoln’s hesitant voice come through the receiver. “Hey, buddy!” he said, sitting up straight. “What’s up?”

“Is my dad okay?”

Rhett couldn’t speak for a moment. “Oh, yeah!” he choked out.

“Well, then why can’t I see him?”

Rhett knew it was impossible to give the boy a satisfying answer, so he opted to simply say, “He’s sick and needs some time alone.”

“But, you just said he was okay.”

Rhett cringed. “It’s complicated, bud. Your dad has a lot going on in his mind right now. He doesn’t want to scare you and your brother and sister.”

“Why would we get scared?”

It was clear to Rhett that the boy was already scared, which made it even more difficult to come up with a response. He wasn’t sure how much Christy would want him to tell the boy, and he wasn’t sure how much information Link would be comfortable with his son knowing. Rhett picked at his fingernails as he mumbled, “I think you should talk to your mom, Lincoln.”

“I already asked her.”

“What did she tell you?”

“She said that dad isn’t dad anymore.”

Rhett felt his heart split in two. He realized after a moment that he had stopped breathing, so he took in a long, shuddering breath. Christy told her son that his father wasn’t his father anymore? “Lincoln, I—“

“Does he still love us?”

“What!? Of course he does!”

“Can I talk to him?”

Rhett thought that he would be able to get Jake to get Link out, and if not, Luke would readily step up. “Yeah. I’m gonna put my phone down for a sec, okay? I gotta go find him. Don’t hang up.”

“Ok.”

Rhett placed his cellphone on his laptop and rushed down to where his friend and interns were. “Jake?” he called as he entered the room.

“It’s me, Rhett,” he heard Link say. The man was standing in the small kitchenette with the others. “What’s wrong?”

“Lincoln called me from Christy’s phone. He’s worried about you and wants to talk.”

Link looked to the floor and shook his head. “Alright,” he mumbled after a long pause. “Alright. Where’s your phone?”

“On my laptop.”

Link nodded and walked quickly out of the room. As he passed, Rhett gave him a reassuring pat on the back. When the man was gone, Rhett walked up to the three interns. “Is he okay?” he asked.

Stevie shrugged. “Jake’s a blast, but…”

“But what?”

Eddie continued her thought. “But Link is totally…gone.”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s something…on his mind.”

“Well, duh!” Rhett grunted in frustration.

“No, I mean,” Eddie stammered. “I mean, there’s something on his mind that…that… I don’t know, man. Something’s not right.”

“Eddie, he’s got a mental disorder.” Rhett’s tone was stern.

The man fell silent, but Stevie and Alex both backed him up. “Did something happen today?” Stevie asked.

Rhett sat down in the nearest chair, resting his head in his hands. He didn’t think Link would appreciate him telling them this, but he needed to vent. “He practically drank himself to death, then almost… He almost killed me, then himself.”

Stevie’s hand covered her mouth and the two other interns stared at Rhett in shock. “Like, really?” Alex mumbled.

“Yeah. Really. He was holding a piece of glass from a broken beer bottle. I had to wrestle it out of him. He disappeared afterwards, and I freaked out. I found him here. Then Jake wanted all of you to play with him.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Eddie breathed.

“Yeah.”

Before any more words could be spoken, Link returned, handing Rhett his cellphone. “Thanks,” he whispered.

“Is everything okay?” Rhett asked, genuinely concerned.

“Yeah. I talked to him about his toys and his school work.”

“So, he’s feeling a bit better?”

“I think so.”

“That’s good, brother.”

Although Link was acting calm, there was a look in his eye that caused Rhett a significant amount of discomfort. The man looked as if he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, his motivation to keep it up deteriorating rapidly. He was acting strangely. It was almost as if he was trying his best to not make eye contact with Rhett. The taller man was about to question Link, but his best friend’s alter Jake suddenly came out.

“TAG, YOU’RE IT!” he shrieked, hitting Eddie on the back, before sprinting off into another room.


	22. Chapter 22

“We need to talk,” was the first thing Rhett said as he and Link entered the man’s home once more.

“About what?” Link mumbled, dragging his feet past his friend and into his kitchen. He opened the fridge and pulled out a beer.

Rhett took the bottle from him. “Don’t,” he grunted. “I’m serious.”

“Rhett, c’mon man.”

“Do you even know how scared I was earlier!?”

The man was silent for a long time, before he whispered, “I’m sorry, Rhett. I just… You have no idea what I’m going through.”

“I know I don’t, brother. But I’m here to support you.”

Link shook his head. “Listen. I’ve been trying to utilize this technique that my therapist said might help with Derrick, but it’s wearing me out big time.”

“What is it?”

“She said that if we all kind of mentally force him into a box and lock it up, he won’t be able to get out.”

“Well, it sure hasn’t worked so far.”

“I don’t know what happened today, exactly, but I don’t want to.”

“Alright. Fair enough.”

Link bit his lip, pulling at a flaking piece of skin with his teeth. “I’m scared, Rhett. I’m really scared.”

“I know. But it’s gonna be okay.”

“I’ve been thinking. I think we need to change the way we’re doing things.”

“How so?” Rhett asked, eyebrow raised.

“I want you to hide my car keys, so I can’t run off again.”

“I can do that.” It was a good idea.

“I also want you to stay by my side 24/7.”

“I already—“

“No, you haven’t.”

“Link, I’m here all the time.”

“I mean 24/7, Rhett. Like, I want you to sleep in my bed with me. I want you to sit on the toilet and make sure I don’t hurt myself while I’m in the shower.”

“Are you serious!?” Rhett asked in disbelief. He felt like Link was joking for a moment, but the look in his eye let Rhett know that this wasn’t the case. Link clearly had some idea about what had happened earlier that day, but just didn’t want to admit it.

“I am, Rhett.”

“Okay. I can do that for you. I won’t leave your sight.”

Link smiled a soft smile. “Thanks,” he whispered, pulling Rhett into a gentle embrace. “You know, that back rub you gave me a couple of nights ago was magnificent.”

Rhett blushed, thankful for the fact that Link’s face was buried in his chest instead of looking directly at him. “Good.” His entire body was flooded with a soothing warmth, momentarily washing away the horrors of the morning. He breathed in deeply, inhaling the scent that was distinctly Link. He didn’t know what he’d do if he was never able to experience it again. “I’m glad.”

Link’s hands tightened their grip against Rhett’s back, holding onto his t-shirt for dear life. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

The shorter man started giggling. “Oh, so you’re finally able to admit it, I see!”

“Sam! What are you doing!?” Rhett gasped.

“I was just doing a little experiment.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Through my research, I have discovered that you need Link to make the first move.”

“I do not!” Sam grinned in response to this comment. “I mean,” Rhett stammered. “I mean, there’s nothing… I… I’m not interested in him that way! And he sure as Hell isn’t interested in me like that, either!”

“Wow, okay. Who’s in his head, again?” Sam pushed up Link’s glasses with a smirk.

“Listen, Sam. I don’t want to argue. Can you please just drop this whole thing?”

“Okay. You have to do one thing for me, though.”

“What’s that?”

“One kiss. Then I promise I’ll stop.”

“SAM!” Rhett bellowed.

“JUST ONE!”

Rhett sighed, covering his mouth with his hand. “Do you promise you’ll stop these games?”

“I don’t break promises, mister.”

“Okay. Fine. One kiss. ONE!”

Link’s jaw dropped. “Really? Wait, you’ll really…”

“Shut up and get it over with,” Rhett muttered.

He leaned down, allowing the shorter man to wrap his arms around his neck. Their lips collided gently. Rhett’s stomach filled with butterflies and his heart felt like it had stopped. It was only a couple of seconds until the kiss was over, but Rhett thought time had stopped.

When the man came back to reality, he was greeted by the sight of Link’s eyes wide open. Before he could say anything, Jake spoke. “You…”

“Jake, listen to me,” Rhett began, frightened that he may have just caused the boy to have another melt down.

However, ever so slowly, a grin began to form on his face. “You liiiike Link,” the boy sang in a teasing manner. He then erupted into a fit of giggles.

“Jake, I—“

“YOU LIKE LINK!” he shrieked, hopping up and down and clapping his hands. “YOU LIKE LINK! YOU LIKE LINK!”

“Jake, calm down!” Rhett yelled over the boy’s chants.

“YOU KISSED LINK!”

“Jake, please, stop,” Rhett begged.

“I’ll only stop if you do something for me,” he laughed.

“What is it?”

“Say you’ll do it first!”

“Jake—“

“SAY IT!” he giggled.

“Fine, I’ll do whatever it is that you want me to do.”

“Take me to the park!”

Rhett’s heart sank. “Jake, I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

“You said you’d do it!”

“I know, but, it’s just…” Rhett’s sentence trailed off as his friend wandered over to where a pad of paper was.

Jake picked up a pencil and began writing. Rhett found it fascinating that even the handwriting was like that of a child’s…even some of the words were spelled wrong. Jake said what he was writing as he wrote it. “Deer, Link… Rett like likes you. I hope you like like him too beecaus he will be sad if you dont. Ha Ha Ha! From Jake”

“Jake, stop that!” Rhett grabbed the pencil.

“Then take me to the park!”

“Fine! We can go to the park. Just please, forget that happened.”

“You’re shy. You don’t want anybody to know you like like Link!”

“I don’t ‘like like’ Link, Jake.”

“Okay, well then let’s just go to the park, then.”

“Alright.” Rhett led his friend outside, and then proceeded to head down the street in the direction of the nearest playground. Thinking to himself, he wondered, “Since when was I so easily manipulated?”


	23. Chapter 23

Rhett’s heart sank. As soon as he and Link stepped foot onto the playground, it was clear that two kids on the grass recognized them. Before Rhett could say anything to Jake, the two fans sprinted over, giggling the whole way.

“Rhett and Link!” the one girl shrieked. “My name is Caitlyn!”

Jake brought his hands up, covering the bottom half of his face. His eyes widened in shock, not sure how to react to the hyper girls before him. “Uh, hi!” Rhett stammered.

“And I’m Gracie! Can we take a picture with you?” the second girl asked.

She reached a hand out to Link, but the man shuffled behind Rhett, grasping his arm tightly. “Um,” Rhett started, “I don’t—“

“What’s wrong with Link?” the first girl asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m not Link,” Jake mumbled. “I’m Jake. You’re scaring me.”

The two girls looked at one another and back to Link. “No, you’re definitely Link…”

Rhett took a deep, shuddering breath, quickly trying to come up with a plan. “Go sit on the swings, Jake. I’ll be over soon.”

“Okay.” The man jogged over to the empty swing set, happy to be away from the crazy girls.

“Listen,” Rhett started, “we had to stop GMM for a while because Link’s having a tough time.”

“But that is Link, right?”

“Right.”

“Then why did he say his name was Jake?”

“It’s really complicated, guys. He… Link… Well, I don’t… He… A doctor told us that he has a problem in his head that we’re trying to fix now.”

“What kind of problem?”

“I’m not going to go into any more detail, guys. If Link wants to tell you, I’ll let him.”

“You guys are really weird,” Gracie muttered before walking away. Caitlyn stayed.

Rhett signaled for Jake to come back over. “What?” he asked, shyly.

“Can you let Link out, Jake?”

“Link is…” Luke darted his eyes to the girl and back up to Rhett. “Link… Okay.”

The girl gasped. “What the!?”

“Link,” Rhett said, “we just met this mythical beast here.”

“Oh, what’s your name?” he asked, forcing himself to smile.

“I’m, uh, Caitlyn… But I already told you that…”

The smile on Link’s face faded. “Sorry.”

“Her and her friend came over and scared Jake. They asked what was wrong with you and I said if you wanted to explain you could.”

“You don’t have to!” the girl said quickly.

Link sighed, placing a hand on the girls shoulder and kneeling down, so his face was level with hers. “This is hard, Caitlyn,” he said. “If I tell you, will you promise not to start spreading crazy rumors?” She widened her eyes and nodded quickly. “Okay. Basically, I have something called Dissociative Identity Disorder. Something scary happened to me when I was a kid, and my brain decided to split itself up into different people. I don’t know why, but it only started to get bad recently.”

“You mean… There’s different people in your head!? Do you hear voices?”

Link bit his lip. “Sometimes.”

“That’s really scary,” Caitlyn mumbled.

“I know. When things get too scary, one of the other people in my head decide to come out and deal with it for me.”

“So, that’s why you met Jake.”

“Who is Jake?” the girl asked quietly.

“He’s a shy little boy.”

“What?”

“It’s hard to understand, I know.”

“Wait, so—“

She was about to ask another question, but before she could, Jake came back out. “Link trusts you, so I’m not scared of you anymore,” he said matter-of-factly.

The girl looked up at Rhett. “I’m scared,” she whispered.

“I’m so sorry,” he sighed, pulling Link upright by the arm.

“Wait, you’re scared of me!?” Jake looked incredibly hurt. “I’m not scary, though!” His chin started quivering as he tried to hold back tears.

The girl’s eyes widened as she backed away slowly. Rhett pulled Link back behind him and said, “Caitlyn, I’m so sorry this happened. I know it’s scary, but Link is still Link. Jake is really nice, and he’s nothing to be afraid of. Link’s going to be okay.”

“Okay,” she mumbled, nodding. “I’m, uh… I’m sorry, Jake.”

“Will you swing with me?” he asked, a hopeful look in his eye.

The girl nodded slowly, a smile beginning to form on her face. “Okay. Can I swing with him, Rhett?”

Rhett covered his face with his hands. This was exactly what he was afraid of. He knew the parents around the park were already looking at them suspiciously. “I guess so,” he said. “Jake, if Sam or Derrick start trying to come out, leave,” he whispered.

“OKAY!” He ran off to the swings with Caitlyn, leaving Rhett behind.

Rhett figured he should probably go around to the adults and explain the situation, as difficult as that might be. He didn’t want anybody thinking they were trying to kidnap anyone, after all. He was surprised by how everyone reacted. Only one parent decided to take her children home. Most of the moms let out a soft, “Aaaaw,” when Rhett finished explaining. They kindly asked him to sit at a picnic table with them and share some snacks. He gladly accepted their invitation.

“So, how long have you two been friends?” the one mother, Cindy, asked.

“About 30 years,” Rhett sighed. “Since first grade.”

“Has he always been like this?”

“No. It just started happening a few weeks ago. His wife left with the kids so they wouldn’t get scared.”

She nodded. “I would’ve done the same thing. He’s in good hands with you.”

Rhett watched as Link jumped from the swing and began climbing the play structure. “I really didn’t want to bring him out here…”

“So, then why did you?”

Rhett wasn’t sure why, but he told Cindy everything. “So, here we are,” he finished.

“You know, you two would make a really sweet couple.”

“What?”

“No, really!” she laughed. “I mean, you’re spending every waking moment taking care of him. You clearly love each other. And Sam is completely head over heels for you. Which means Link is too, right?”

Rhett had heard this from Sam millions of times, but it wasn’t until this woman said it that it really sunk in. Link liked him… Did he love him!? Did Rhett love him, too? “I guess you’re right. That just makes everything so much more complicated.” He could feel his cheeks turning bright red.

“Hey, Jake!” she called. “Come over here!”

“What are you doing!?”

Jake quickly jogged over. “Who are you?”

“I’m Cindy, Caitlyn’s mom.”

“Oh! Hi, Caitlyn’s mom!”

“Does Link have a crush on Rhett?” she asked, grinning.

Jake began giggling just as he had back at the house. Before anything else could be said, Jake was gone.

“Why are we still here?” Link asked.

“Jake made a friend with Cindy’s daughter.”

“Oh, God! I’m so, so sorry. I’m not—“

“It’s alright. Rhett explained everything.”

Link nodded. “Can we leave, Rhett? Please?”

“Is something wrong?”

“I just… I…” Link traced his index finger along his bottom lip, deep in thought. “I’m just not feeling well.”

“Alright, brother.”

Link began walking away, but Rhett stayed for a moment to say goodbye. “Thanks for being so understanding, Cindy,” he said, genuinely grateful for this woman’s company.

“Anytime. Keep up the good work.”

Rhett jogged away to catch up with Link. “Hey, man. What’s wrong?”

Link began walking ahead as fast as he could, ignoring Rhett. When the man entered his home, he stopped and turned to face his friend. “Rhett, I’m having flashbacks.”

Rhett’s eyes widened. He felt horrible for not having noticed on their walk home, but Link was clearly on the verge of hyperventilating. There were tears in his eyes. He was having a panic attack. “Woah, shit, man. Okay, come sit on the couch.”

Rhett dragged Link into the living room and forced him to sit down before grabbing a bottle of water. “Rhett, I… I…” Link was trying to say something, but couldn’t. He pulled at his hair and clenched his eyes tight, rocking himself back and forth. The whimpers that were escaping his mouth were horrifying. Rhett began to panic himself, unsure of what to do.

“Link,” he mumbled, “it’s okay…” He placed his hand on his friend’s back.

After a moment, Link flung himself into Rhett’s arms, holding onto him as tightly as he could. “Rhett,” he moaned.

“What is it, buddy?” Rhett’s heart was beating a mile a minute.

“He doesn’t want me to hang out with you. He says I’m with you too much.”

“Who?” Link shook his head vigorously. “Link, who are you talking about!?”

As Link let out shuddering sobs, Rhett held onto him protectively. They sat like that for at least an hour while Link was in distress. Rhett wished that he could see what his friend was seeing. Link eventually exhausted himself, falling asleep where he sat. Rhett didn’t want to move a muscle, fearing that he might wake the man. So, they sat where they were, Link drooling, and Rhett getting damp.


	24. Chapter 24

Rhett was extremely grateful, for the next few days went by without any serious problems. He stayed by Link’s side at every waking moment, as well as in their sleep. He would be awoken a few times a night to Link talking in his sleep, but other than that, everything was alright. They really had started to get into a routine. Rhett would make the two of them breakfast in the morning, then they would take turns in the shower. They’d watch a movie, Sam would be his lovable, obnoxiously flamboyant self, and Jake would beg Rhett to play games with him. He would try to write some new songs with Link, but those ideas never really went anywhere.

One early morning, Rhett awoke in the dark room to Link shaking him. “What’s wrong?” he croaked, voice scratchy with sleep.

“There’s a bad man,” he whispered.

“Jake, it was just a nightmare. It’s alright.” Rhett rolled over, facing away from his friend.

“No, it wasn’t.”

“Was it Derrick?”

“No.”

“Who was it?” Rhett sat up, slowly realizing that Jake was actually scared.

“I dunno. I just keep seeing a big scary man above me.”

Rhett clenched his jaw. “Above you? Jake, what was he doing?” The man’s stomach lurched. It was possible that he was about to find out what had happened to his friend.

“I don’t know. He just looks mean.”

Rhett sighed. “It’s alright, buddy. You’re safe.”

“Will you cuddle with me?” he mumbled bashfully.

“Yeah. Come here.” Rhett laid back down and opened his arms, inviting Link in. Rhett absentmindedly planted a gentle kiss on the top of his friend’s head. The two men settled into their new positions, not wasting a single moment before slipping back into the dream world.

Naturally, Rhett couldn’t help but keep thinking about Jake’s words the next morning. He wanted to ask about any details again, but the boy seemed to have forgotten all about it. The two men were sitting on the floor on opposite sides of the coffee table and coming up with a list of possible ideas for future GMMs when Rhett noticed Link’s jaw clench tight. His pronounced Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard. “What’s wrong?” Rhett asked carefully.

Link bowed his head, running fingers through his hair. “I keep seeing something. I just can’t make out a face.”

“Big scary guy?”

“Yeah. How’d you know?”

“Jake woke me up last night. He was scared.”

“Did he say anything else?”

“Nope.”

Link grunted in frustration. “You know, Rhett? Sometimes I just want to blow my brains out.”

“What!? Link, don’t say that!”

“Sorry, man. It’s just absolutely infuriating. I feel like all of the answers are right there and I just can’t see them.”

“You’ve been keeping that journal, right?”

“Yeah, but all that’s in there is Jake and Sam being idiots and Luke leaving notes about what everyone did that day.”

“Don’t call them idiots,” Rhett whispered without thinking. Not only was it his job to protect Link, but without him realizing, it was starting to become his job to protect his alters, too.

“Rhett. Stop.”

“Sorry, brother.”

“I just don’t know what to do anymore, man. I mean, I never did.”

“Listen,” Rhett started, but was interrupted by a loud shriek.

Link was on the floor, rolling around in utter distress. “NO!”

“Link!? Link, it’s okay! It’s just a flashback!” Rhett bellowed, crawling as quickly as he could to his friend’s side. He wrapped his arms around him, holding him closely in a tight embrace. “It’s okay! It’s not really happening!”

Link didn’t stop flailing. Rhett scrunched up his face, afraid that he’d get slapped. “DON’T TOUCH ME! STOP!” Link kept this up for at least 10 minutes, but to Rhett, it felt like hours. It took all of his strength to keep his tears at bay. He wanted desperately to let go, but he didn’t want Link to hit his head on the side of the table.

“Link?” he whispered with hesitation. The man was finally quiet, save for a few sniffles.

“Rhett?”

“Yeah, Jake?” Rhett was rubbing soothing circles on his friend’s back. He found that it was a surefire way to calm him down.

“What’s a… a faggot?”

“Why are you asking me that?” he said, voice stern.

“The big mean scary guy called Link that.”

“It’s a really mean thing to call a boy who likes other boys. What else did he do, Jake?” This was it. Rhett was about to find out what had happened.

“I… I don’t know.”

“Jake, you need to tell me!”

“I don’t know, Rhett! I really don’t!”

Rhett stood abruptly, nearly knocking Link flat onto his face. He broke down, tears streaming freely down his cheeks and into his beard. “WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU!?” he screamed. “WHO DID THIS!? I SWEAR TO GOD I WANT TO FUCKING KILL THE BASTARD!”

Link slowly rose to his feet, his face now stone. He patted Rhett on the shoulder firmly before wandering down the hall. “I’ll be staying in the bedroom until you calm down. You’ll just cause another meltdown.”

Thank God for Luke…

It took Rhett longer to compose himself than he had hoped. When he finally felt sane again, he knocked on the door to Link’s bedroom. “Link?” There was no answer, so he carefully entered the room.

Link was sitting on his bed, legs crossed, staring intensely into Rhett’s eyes. It felt as if he was drilling straight through the man’s soul. Rhett thought for sure that Derrick was out and ready to raise hell, but he was wrong. He was shocked when Sam’s voice echoed throughout the quiet room. “I want to suck your big, juicy cock,” he growled. His mouth was pursed in a tight frown, his eyebrows furrowed.

Rhett’s eyes widened in shock. “Sam, please. Don’t even go there.”

Link’s eyes fluttered closed, and when he opened them again, he groaned, clasping the sides of his head. “Oooow!”

“Are you okay?”

“My head is throbbing.” He stood and hurried into the kitchen to get some pain medication. “What happened?” he called back to Rhett.

“I’m not entirely sure…”

“I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“No.”

“Good.”

“Do you—“

“Yes, I remember the flashback. But I don’t have any idea what it was.”

Rhett sighed deeply. “Link, you’ll be okay. We’re almost through the worst of this. I know it.”

“I don’t know, man. I really don’t know.” Link shook his head before walking gracefully up to Rhett, wrapping his arms around his neck. Rhett felt himself melt into the close, intimate contact. “I can’t believe you’re still here with me.”

“I’m never leaving you,” Rhett replied without a single second’s thought.

A soft, loving smile grew on Link’s face. No more words were exchanged after that. Link just drifted away and walked back into his bedroom, climbing under the covers for another nap.


	25. Chapter 25

“JESUS!” Rhett bellowed, spitting his sip of Diet Coke back into his cup. He had heard a loud crash behind him. He turned around to see Link hop up from the floor, a stunned look on his face. “What was that!? Did you just run into something?”

“I ran into the wall,” Jake mumbled.

“How did you manage to do that?” Rhett raised his eyebrows.

“I wanted to give you a hug and I was running too fast and I couldn’t turn in time.”

“You—“

Rhett’s questioning was cut off by Link crawling onto the couch beside him and clinging to his abdomen as if he were a giant teddy bear.

“Are you okay?” Rhett asked, placing a hand on his friend’s back.

“Yeah,” Jake said, voice muffled.

“Why’d you want a hug so bad?”

“I’m scared.”

“Jake, are you seeing that scary guy again?” Link had been getting flashbacks of the same man lately, but he couldn’t make out a face. He had no idea who the man was, or what he was doing, but some extremely negative emotions came along with the image.

“Yeah.”

The more the flashbacks popped up, the more frustrated Rhett became. He needed more information. He needed to know what had caused all of Link’s problems. Who was this elusive, mysterious figure haunting Link’s mind? “You’re okay, buddy. It’s just the two of us. There’s nobody else here.”

Out of the blue, Jake said something that left him speechless for a moment. “The man said that God wanted him to teach Link about something.”

“About what, Jake?”

“I dunno. But it was grown-up.”

His stomach churned. Rhett wanted more than anything not to believe something of a sexual nature had happened, but the more information that came out, the more it seemed like that was the case.

“Hey, Rhett? Can I have some candy?”

Rhett closed his eyes for a moment, trying to push his friend’s comment out of his mind. “Yeah, sure. There’s some in the cupboard by the fridge.”

“Thanks!” Jake jumped up and ran into the other room.

Rhett could feel tears of anger and hatred welling in his eyes as soon as he was alone. How dare that man use God as an excuse for whatever horrible thing he had done to Link? Expecting Jake to return with some candy in his hands, he was surprised when Link entered the room with a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats. Rhett smiled.

Good old Link and his cereal addiction.

“Did I tell you I was seeing my therapist today?”

“No…”

“Yeah, I’m seeing her twice this week,” he said matter-of-factly between two large mouthfuls of his afternoon snack.

“How come?”

“She thinks we’ve almost got the answers to what’s been going on. She’s really excited.”

Rhett gulped. “How do you feel about that?”

Link chuckled. “Sorry, brother. You’re not my therapist. I’m not telling.” He winked and walked back into the kitchen to clean out his bowl.

What was that supposed to mean?

Link left the house shortly after that exchange. As always, when Rhett was left alone in the silent building, he became restless. He didn’t know what to do. His only responsibility was taking care of Link, and that wasn’t possible for the time being. He resumed his habit of pacing back and forth in the house, mulling over the various odd comments Jake had told him. He had said whatever lesson the man had tried to teach Link was “grown-up.” That could mean anything. Rhett had been praying for weeks that whatever forced his friend to get to his current state wasn’t sexual, but that was a very big possiblity.

Rhett was surprised when he opened his eyes. He didn’t realize he had fallen asleep. The sun was setting, and Link still hadn’t returned from his appointment. He didn’t have time to panic, because almost immediately, Link entered the home. He tossed a plastic bag at Rhett.

“I stopped for dinner, so I brought you back some.”

“Oh, thanks, man. Why didn’t you tell me you were doing that? I would’ve come.”

Link shook his head. “I just need to be alone right now. Today was pretty rough.”

“Hey, come talk to me!”

“I said that I need to be alone, Rhett.”

Link walked off to his bedroom, leaving Rhett in an awkward silence. He quickly scarfed down the burrito that Link got for him, and then cleaned up dishes in the kitchen that had been piling up for a couple of days. His mind was silent. The only way that he was able to last so long in their current situation was to block out his thoughts and emotions whenever possible. Letting his mind wander was a dangerous thing. Focusing on the dishes was his best option.

Later that night, Rhett started to get ready for bed like he did every other night. He changed into his sweatpants and brushed his teeth. Before he could finish his routine by climbing into bed next to Link, however, he was stopped.

Jake’s worried face peered out from under the covers. “Don’t stay in here tonight.”

“Why not?” Rhett asked, concerned.

“Just don’t.”

“Um… Okay. Is something wrong, Jake?” The covers were immediately pulled back over Link, covering his face. Rhett shrugged and walked to the couch. He hadn’t missed the hard cushions, but if sleeping there made Link feel safer, he was willing to sacrifice his own comfort.


	26. Chapter 26

Just as the sun was beginning to rise, Rhett shivered. He’d been awake for a while, unable to sleep due to the combination of his bad back and his worried thoughts. His arms were covered in goose bumps. Usually the heater had automatically turned on by now… He needed his sweater, so he peeled himself off of the couch and padded quietly towards Link’s bedroom. He opened the door slowly, afraid of waking his friend so early. The sight of a completely empty, disheveled bed surprised the man. Rhett knew that Link was still somewhere on the property, because the sound of the front door closing or a car starting would have woken him up immediately.

He flicked on the light, and after waiting a moment for his eyes to readjust, he headed to his bag in the far corner of the room. He pulled on the first sweater he found, not caring about whether or not it matched his sweats.

“Alright, Link,” he thought to himself. “Where are you…?”

Just as Rhett turned around, a smell hit him that he immediately recognized as urine. Eyebrows furrowed, he approached the large bed before him. Sure enough, there was a puddle in the center of the mattress.

Link had wet the bed.

Out of everything they had gone through in the last few weeks, this almost upset Rhett the most. It was then that he knew something sexual had happened to Link when he was younger. In a sudden fit of rage, Rhett kicked the wall closest to him. His entire body felt hot. He had never been so furious in his life. Before he could do anything more, he reminded himself that Link was somewhere in the house, probably having a meltdown. He needed to bury his own emotions so he could deal with his friend’s.

He stepped out into the hall and sighed deeply, trying his best to gain control of himself. He listened, but heard nothing. The silence was unnerving, but Rhett pressed on. Link wasn’t in his bedroom, the kids’ rooms, or the bathroom. Rhett was running out of places to look, and the longer he searched, the more worried he became. He still hadn’t heard a single noise to signal the other man’s presence.

Rhett’s heart sank when he noticed the back door. It was open slightly. No wonder the house was so cold… Rhett slowly approached the door, peering out into the dim, early morning light. Sure enough, there was Link, sitting on the grass with his back to the home. Link grunted and grabbed a fistful of grass and threw it as hard as he could in anger and frustration. Rhett’s heart was beating a mile a minute. He knew he needed to do something for Link, but he had no idea what that was. He decided to finally approach the man when he noticed that he was trembling.

“L…Link?” Rhett mumbled.

It was as if Rhett’s vocalization gave Link permission to release his emotions. The man suddenly began choking out loud sobs, gasping for air. “Rhett, help…”

The larger man dove onto the lawn beside Link, wrapping him into his tight embrace. “What’s wrong!?”

“I can’t breathe,” Link gasped, ignoring Rhett’s question.

“It’s okay, man. You’re okay. I’ve got you.” Rhett held Link closely, running fingers through his hair and a hand up and down his back. He could feel the man’s tears dampening his neck, but he ignored the biting cold that it caused.

“I remember,” Link sobbed.

“What? What do you remember, Link!?” Rhett urged. “Please tell me!”

“I remember… I remember…” Link kept saying the same thing over and over and over again, much to Rhett’s frustration.

“Link, please! What’s wrong? What do you remember!?”

“Everything!” The man’s tears weren’t showing any signs of slowing.

Rhett gave up questioning Link. He wasn’t going to talk yet. Instead, he held onto his friend, the damp grass chilling the both of them to the bone. When he couldn’t stand it any longer, he whispered, “Link, let’s go inside where it’s warm.”

Link didn’t respond, but stood up and stumbled towards the house. Rhett helped him inside and grabbed a blanket, wrapping it around him. They sat together on the couch and Rhett took him in his arms once more. Even though they had known each other for three decades, Rhett had never seen Link in such distress. And that said a lot. The man almost slit his throat a couple of weeks ago.

“Breathe, Link,” Rhett whispered. “Just breathe. It’s okay.”

The man’s sobs finally quieted down. There were a few quiet gasps, but overall, he seemed calm. “I woke up in a bunch of piss and suddenly I remembered everything.”

“Who was the bastard and what did he do?” Rhett growled.

Link began crying again, but this time, it wasn’t hysterical. Instead, the tears flowed steadily down his cheeks while the man sat staring at the ceiling, biting his lip. “Do y…you remember my mom’s boyfriend R…Rick?”

“Yeah, man.”

“Well, he… Fuck.”

“It’s okay, Link. Take your time,” Rhett encouraged. “We’ve got all day. Start from the beginning.”

“Well, you know that he called me ‘Princess’ because I was kind of a wimpy little twerp.”

“Yeah, I remember that,” Rhett sighed.

“He’d treat me like a little girl. He’d ask me why I didn’t have tea parties and—“

“That explains Jake,” Rhett gasped.

“What?”

“There was one night where Sam was putting on makeup and Jake freaked out. He started panicking and insisting that he wasn’t a girl.”

Link rolled his eyes and laughed half-heartedly. “Yep. I guess that’d explain it.”

“Sorry for interrupting. Keep going.”

Link nodded. “Rick thought it was odd that I only played with you. You had other friends that you hung out with, but not I didn’t.”

“Why’d he think that was weird?”

Link turned his head, unable to look at the man to his right. “Um…” Link gulped and took in a long, shuddering breath.

Rhett placed a hand on his back. “It’s okay, man…”

“He thought I had a crush on you or something.” Rhett didn’t respond. “He’d tell me only girls liked boys. I didn’t know what he was talking about. Once when I came home from being out with you all day… My mom was still at work, but he was home. He asked me where I’d been, so I told him.”

“What’d he do, Link?” Rhett breathed, simultaneously eager and dreading hearing the rest.

“’You little faggot,’” Link whimpered. His eyes were glossed over. He was clearly reliving the moment in as much detail as one could. Rhett felt as if he couldn’t breathe. “He dragged me into…into…into my room.”

“Link, I—“

“He shoved me over and started ripping off my clothes.”

The tears came back in full force. Link was trembling from head to toe once again, and this time, Rhett was struggling to keep his own emotions in check. “You don’t have to keep going,” Rhett muttered.

Link ignored him. “He said he’d show me what it was like for a boy to like another boy. He said God wanted him to show me why it was wrong… Then… Well, he made me do things for him… And he did things to me… From then on, any time I was out with you for too long of a time, when I got home, I knew what was waiting for me.”

“LINK!” Rhett bellowed. “Why didn’t you say anything!? Why were you still—“

“Because when I was with you, I felt okay. And I was afraid that if I told my mom, she’d side with Rick and say I couldn’t play with you anymore.” Link wiped his eyes, but the wetness came back immediately. “I was only happy when I was with you. It’s funny, playing with you made things so much better, but so much worse at the same time…”

Rhett felt as if he’d gotten punched in the gut. A tear finally escaped. “Link, man… Why? Why didn’t… Why… I can’t believe this happened…”

“Rick was right, though.”

“What?”

“I did have a crush on you… I do have a crush on you, I suppose…”

“Link,” Rhett breathed.

Link stood abruptly. “Sorry. I’m sorry. I…”

“Link, stop!”

The man turned around, a stone-cold expression on his face. “I’m going to go for a drive.”

“Luke, c’mon. I need to talk to Link!”

“I know you hid his keys, but you were kind of an idiot and didn’t hide your own. I’ll come back soon, don’t worry. I won’t let us do anything stupid.”

“Luke!” Rhett begged.

His pleas didn’t work. Link grabbed his keys, tossed his glasses onto the floor, and was gone.


	27. Chapter 27

Rhett could have very easily stopped Luke from taking his car and leaving the home. Rhett knew that. However, his mind wouldn’t let him stand. He couldn’t move. Staring into space, he could do nothing but replay Link’s words over and over again.

_“’…when I got home, I knew what was waiting for me.’”_

Rhett was completely checked out. He was completely unaware of any time passing. The only thing that snapped him out of the horrible trance he had fallen into was his phone buzzing on the couch next to him. He looked down and saw that Eddie was calling. Before he answered it, Rhett violently punched the pillow to his left.

“Rhett?” Eddie’s voice came quietly out of the phone.

“Why are you whispering?” Rhett’s voice was low and grumbly.

“I came by the studio to get a jacket I left here and found Link.”

“Is he okay!?”

“Yeah. He’s fine. Well, Jake is fine… I think… He asked me not to call you.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. He wouldn’t tell me.”

Rhett sighed deeply. “I’ll come down there.”

“Alright, man. Is it okay if I go back home?”

“What’s he doing right now?”

“He’s just sitting on the floor eating.”

“Alright. Yeah, you can go. I think he’ll be alright.”

“Rhett?”

“What?”

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” he choked out after a moment of hesitation. “Bye, man.”

“See ya.”

Rhett grunted. He got up and dug around the kitchen for Link’s hidden car keys. When he finally arrived at the studio, he spotted his car in the parking lot. He hopped out and walked in. “Link?” he called into the quiet building. “Jake?” He closed the door behind him and stood silently, waiting for any sort of noise signaling the other man’s presence. Before he knew it, his friend was standing at the end of the hall, his hands and face covered in jelly. Rhett couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle.

“Why are you here?”

“I just wanted to make sure Link was okay.”

Jake nodded slowly, lifting his right hand to his face and licking his fingers. He stayed where he was, but he wouldn’t make eye contact.

“Are  _you_  okay, Jake?” Rhett bit his lip as Jake shrugged slightly. “Let’s go wash your hands, bud. You’re a mess.”

Rhett approached his friend and took him by the arm, but he peeled himself out of his grasp with a quiet whine. “Don’t.”

“Jake, it’s okay. I’m not gonna—“

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“What? Why are you sorry?”

“I wet the bed and now I made another mess and you’re mad at me.”

“I’m not mad at you, Jake,” Rhett insisted. “Come on, let’s go clean you off and go home.”

“Link’s sad, I’m scared, Derrick is scary, and none of us know what to do.”

“I know, Jake,” Rhett sighed.

“He doesn’t think you  _like_  like him.”

Rhett stared down at his friend, mouth open slightly, unsure of what he should say…or if he should say anything… Things were starting to get…real. He had somehow managed to avoid Link’s apparent “crush” on him. He had managed to evade talking about it and more or less pretend like it was nonexistent. Now, however, he wasn’t so sure he could ignore it. “Jake, I—“

Rhett took a step closer to his friend, planning on holding on to his wrist and directing him to the car. Jake dove suddenly under the desk that the two men used to film their internet show before sliding out from the other side and running into the other room. “STOP!” Rhett heard him call.

Rhett would have let the boy calm himself down and/or wait for Link to switch alters, but he heard a crash. He needed to make sure Jake wasn’t breaking things or hurting himself. So, the giant of a man sprinted into the room Jake had disappeared into. The chase lasted for almost an entire hour and took place all throughout the studio. Things were knocked off of shelves, doors were slammed shut and thrown open, and furniture was pushed around. Rhett was sweaty and panting, but it seemed like Jake could keep up the chase all day. “Jake! What are you doing!? Stop! I’m not going to hurt you!” he kept repeating.

Rhett tripped when a grey hoodie was thrown at him. Finally, Jake sat down in Link’s black chair back on the set and began crying. Rhett took this opportunity to grab him. Jake was flailing wildly, making soft whimpers and quiet noises of protest. Being the larger of the two men, Rhett had no trouble hanging on.

After a moment, Jake settled down. “I don’t want you to touch me like Sam does,” he whispered under his breath.

“What!?”

Jake shook his head and Rhett loosened his grip. The man before Rhett closed his eyes, and went silent. Rhett didn’t dare to move. Anything could be going on in his friend’s mind, and he didn’t want to risk triggering anything. Rhett had no idea when it happened, but suddenly, a hand was wrapped around the back of his neck and soft lips were pressed against his own. His eyes widened and he broke the kiss. “Sam, don’t.”

“It’s not Sam, Rhett. It’s me,” Link muttered.

“Link… I… I…” Rhett fell onto his knees next to the other man.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry for everything I’ve put you through over the last couple of weeks.”

“It’s alright, brother. I’m here for you. Always.”

“We need to talk.”

“About what?”

“I just kissed you Rhett.”

“Oh. Right.”

“I just…”

Rhett silenced his friend. He silenced him the only way that felt right. He didn’t think before he acted, he just  _acted_. He repeated Link’s actions from a moment earlier. Only, this time, neither of them broke away. Instead of separating, the two men only deepened the kiss. The dam broke. All of the pent up, hidden emotions were spilling out of each man simultaneously. There was no going back now. 


	28. Chapter 28

Sorry this part is so short. I haven’t really had time to write, but I wanted to post something.

The kiss wasn’t long. It felt eternal, though. It only ended when Link’s hand found Rhett’s crotch. Rhett gasped slightly due to the sudden jolt of stimulation and leaned in to return to Link’s soft lips, but Link spoke. Or, more accurately, Sam did.

There was a quiet giggle. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to hold back much longer,” he sang, a sly smile spreading across his face.

Rhett sat back quickly. “You didn’t—“

“No, I didn’t trick you. Link started it. I just wanted to rub it in your dumb face!”

Rhett blushed. “Well, you killed the moment,” he mumbled, standing up and heading towards the door. “Let’s go home.”

“You’re such a party pooper,” Sam grumbled.

Part of Rhett was happy that the kiss had ended. He really didn’t know what he was doing and he was starting to panic. However, most of him was upset. He just wanted to kiss Link, not think about kissing Link. He needed to get out of his own head, and Sam ruined that. He couldn’t kiss Sam. It felt wrong. Kissing Link was difficult enough, but the alter added a whole new layer of complexity to the situation. Making sure Sam followed him into the parking lot, the two got into their respective cars and headed home to Link’s place.

Rhett’s mind was unable to silence itself for a single second all the way home. He had just kissed Link. Did he love him? Link loved him… Did he love him back? “I think I might,” he whispered at a stoplight. He closed his eyes and shook his head. A loud honk from a driver behind him broke him free of his momentary trance.

Link had arrived at the home first. Rhett entered the building and turned to see Link standing in the hallway awkwardly, biting his lip. “Why are we back home? Did I do something wrong?” he asked, voice shaky.

Rhett realized that the last thing Link had experienced was himself kissing Rhett, then Rhett questioning him. He then “woke up” alone in his house, Rhett nowhere to be seen.

“No,” Rhett assured him. He walked to his friend, wrapping him in his long, protective arms. He rested his chin on Link’s head. “Sam started goofing around and I didn’t feel comfortable. It feels like I’d be taking advantage of you or something.”

Link nodded, a small laugh escaping him. “No more of this. Not yet, at least.”

“What do you mean?” Rhett asked, stepping back.

“It feels wrong. We’re married. It’s just… I… Rhett, I’ve wanted to be with you for… I don’t know how long. A really long time. I’ve wanted nothing more than to be able to…to…to feel what I just felt. And more. But the situation isn’t right.”

“I know what you mean,” Rhett agreed. “But, Christy left. And—“

“I am technically still married. Christy did leave, but Jessie didn’t.”

“Some really serious conversations need to happen, don’t they?” the taller man breathed. Link nodded.

Rhett was about to go on, but Jake came out, looked around, and asked, “Will you make a bubble bath for me? I’m still sticky from the jelly I ate.”

Rhett sighed, forcing a soft smile to his face. “Sure, buddy,” he whispered. “Let’s go.”

For the next hour and a half, Rhett sat on the couch by himself, the TV on mute. He was going over what he should say to Jessie in his head. How the hell was he going to explain what had happened? He kept becoming distracted by sounds of Jake sliding around in the tub and making gun noises for his GI Joes.


	29. Chapter 29

Rhett was startled awake by a gentle but firm shaking on his shoulder. Link was sitting next to him, his eyes wide and a smile lurking on his face. “Link?” Rhett asked.

“Hey, man.”

“How long have I been asleep?”

“I don’t know. I only got out of the shower a couple of minutes ago.”

“Okay. Well, thanks for waking me up.” The larger of the two men stood and stretched his limbs, groaning softly. “Do you want to do something?”

“I don’t know. I’m pretty tired.”

“I bet. Are you okay?”

“I… I think so. I just wish I could… Nevermind.” Link blushed furiously.

“You wish you could what?”

“I… I wish I could bring myself to be more intimate with you without feeling horribly guilty.”

Rhett involuntarily chuckled. “Hey, man. We’ll get it figured out as soon as we can, okay?”

Link bit his lip and then suddenly switched alters. “Did you know that birds are dinosaurs?”

“I did, Jake… Link and I need to talk, though. Can you—“

“No.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t want to kiss you like Link does.”

Rhett took a step back. “That’s not what I was going to say, Jake!”

“Link wants to kiss you and feels sad because his wife… What was her name? Christy? She’s super nice and brought me pizza and you’re not supposed to kiss somebody when you’ve already been kissing somebody else. But I don’t want to kiss anybody, so I don’t feel bad! I just want to play with you!”

Rhett felt a wash of relief. He had thought for sure he had just caused another meltdown. “So, Link went away because he doesn’t want to think about…kissing me?”

“Yep.”

“Well, I need to talk to my wife, Jake. Sooo…”

“Can we go to the studio?”

“What? We just got back from there!”

“I knooow,” he whined, “but I don’t like it at Link’s house and there’s so many more toys over there!”

He sighed and rubbed his face. He could lock himself in the office or something and talk to Jessie while his friend occupied himself with the random stuff littered around the office… “Do you promise to leave me alone while I’m talking to my wife?”

“I promise!”

“Okay. Fine. We can go back to the studio.”

“Yay! I’ll go pack!” The man skipped off down the hallway.

“Pack!? Jake, what are you doing?” Rhett followed.

“We’re gonna have a really fun sleepover! Will you buy candy on the way?”

“Jake—“

“I’ll bring my favorite things from the house. What pajamas should I bring?”

“Jake!”

“I’ll bring my dinosaur shirt that Sam bought!” he grinned wildly.

Rhett gave up without a fight. Maybe it would be easier to deal with all of the alters in a more confined space. “Alright. You do that.” The man grabbed his own bag from the corner of the room and headed to his car.

———-

“Is Link okay?” Jessie asked as Rhett closed the door to the office. The two adults sat in chairs across from one another.

“He’ll be fine.” Rhett kept his voice low. “We really need to talk.”

“I know, Rhett. That’s why I’m here. What do we need to talk about?” She had a worried look in her eye.

“About us. About Link and I. About everything.” Rhett couldn’t hold eye contact for more than a second. He was getting sweaty. What should he say?

“Go on,” Jessie urged, placing a hand on her husband’s knee.

“Link… Well, I really don’t know where to start, babe. Link… He kissed me.”

Jessie nodded slowly, her expression unreadable. “Okay…”

“I kissed him back. He realized that part of the reason he’s in this situation is that…he has had a thing for me almost our entire lives. Jessie, I…”

“Do you love him?”

“Of course I do! You know that!”

“I mean, do you love him like you love me?”

Rhett was quiet for a moment. He ran a hand through his beard and grunted. “It’s different. I still love you. You’re my wife. I’d die for you. I really would, Jessie. But Link… We’ve been together forever. And when we kissed, it just… It felt right.”

“So, what do you want?”

“Are you asking me to choose?” There was no response. “Jessie, I love both of you.”

“What have you two…done?”

“We only kissed that one time. We agreed that doing anything else would be inappropriate given the fact that we are married men. I wanted to talk to you, and Link wants to talk to Christy.”

“Well,” Jessie sighed. She was quiet for an excruciating amount of time. “Do you still want to be a part of our family?”

“I’d never leave.”

“But, you want to be with Link?”

Rhett looked down and shrugged slightly.

“You need to figure all of this out on your own, Rhett. I know you haven’t been home in a while, but don’t come back…”

“JESSIE!” Rhett bellowed. He felt as if he had gotten stabbed in the heart.

“Shhh, Rhett. This isn’t me kicking you out or anything. You need to take care of Link. Please, just figure out your situation and keep me updated. As of right now, I’m okay with…whatever.” The woman had tears in her eyes, but refused to let them fall.

“What?”

“I don’t know why, but… It doesn’t feel wrong. Just… I need some time to process what this means. I need to think about what this is going to do to our family.”

“Oh my gosh, Jessie. I love you so much.”

“I love you too, Rhett.”

“I mean it.”

She stood and looked to the floor. “Do you want me to talk to Christy, or…?”

“I don’t know. I feel like Link should do that.”

Jessie nodded. “I’ll leave you two alone.”

“Jessie, I’m sorry. Things have been so complicated lately and I’ve just made everything worse.” Rhett really did feel horrible.

“We’ll be okay. We’ll get this figured out. Just… Do whatever you need to do to make Link happy, but don’t give me any details…please.”

Rhett leaned down and gave his wife a gentle, reassuring kiss, letting her know without words that he was still one hundred percent committed to their relationship. He felt like the luckiest man in the world.


	30. Chapter 30

Rhett walked Jessie to the door of the studio, unknowingly passing Jake. Hopping up, he ran over to the couple. Without looking Jessie in the eye, he nervously poked her arm. He seemed distressed.

“Jake, what are you doing?” Rhett asked.

“Um,” he mumbled to the woman in the room. “What’s your name again?”

“I’m… I’m Jessie.”

“Jessie, Rhett wants to kiss Link even though he’s married to you but—“

“We’ve discussed it, Jake,” Jessie whispered. “Don’t worry about it.”

“You’re… You’re okay with Rhett kissing somebody else!?”

Jessie merely smiled an awkward smile and left the building, leaving the two men alone.

“I’m sorry I told on you,” Jake whispered.

“It’s okay, bud.” The room was quiet for a moment before Rhett muttered, “What do you want to do?”

“Can we make a blanket fort!?”

“Hmm… I guess so. I think there’s some sheets in the other room. We’ve used them as props before. You find some cushions. I’ll be right back.”

The two split up. Rhett was experiencing a very unique combination of emotions. He felt immense relief because of what Jessie gave him permission to do. He also was nervous about what Christy’s reaction to the situation would be. Of course he was scared for the future—mostly for Link’s. They had always had plans. But now, when Rhett tried to visualize the future, he pictured a black wall. It wasn’t as if he felt like he had  _no_  future, he just didn’t have any idea what it might be. And that scared him. Despite all of these complicated, overwhelming thoughts, he also felt an intense pang of nostalgia. He and Link used to build blanket forts all the time as children. He smiled to himself as he grabbed two blankets from a drawer and headed back to the set where Jake was waiting.

“THOSE HAVE DINOSAURS ON THEM!” he squealed, his entire face lighting up.

“Yeah! I thought you’d like them.”

Jake giggled and began setting up the cushions. It only took a few minutes to get the fort built up, with Jake doing most of the work. Rhett gladly followed his friend’s lead and did whatever he was told to.

“It’s awesome!” Jake cheered, clapping his hands.

Rhett kneeled down on the tiled floor and bellowed dramatically, “I’m going in!”

“I’m going in, too!” Jake followed immediately.

The two sat squished together for a moment before Rhett whispered, “Now what?”

“Just sit and enjoy it!” Jake said, scolding Rhett for acting impatient.

“You should name your fort,” the larger man suggested.

“Let’s call it The Hideout!”

“Fort Hideout… And we need to defend it against girls…with cooties.”

“Oh yeah. The girls with cooties are  _definitely_  gonna be attacking this place,” Jake said matter-of-factly.

It was then that Jessie unexpectedly reentered the building. “Sorry, guys. I left my purse here when I left.”

Jessie giggled in surprise when her husband whispered loud enough for her to hear, “I see a female on the horizon, Jake…”

“I SMELL COOTIES!” he yelled.

“COOTIE BOMB!” Rhett shrieked.

The two men jumped upright, destroying the fort. Jake began yelling. “AAAH!!! GET OUT OF HERE, COOTIES!” He was throwing cushions around. Meanwhile, Rhett was standing behind him, the blanket draped over his shoulders, smirking at his wife. She got her purse from the other room and said her goodbyes with a laugh.

“The cooties are gone,” Jake said, sitting on the floor.

“Yeah, but we destroyed the fort.”

“That’s okay. It was boring in there anyway.”

Rhett laughed. “It sorta was… What do you want to do now?”

“I’m supposed to write in our journal.”

“Oh, I forgot about that. You go ahead and do that.”

“Will you make dinner? Also, where do we sleep?”

“Are you getting tired?”

Jake nodded and walked to the other room, where he had left Link’s bag. Rhett walked into the small kitchen they had in the studio to see what food they still had around. There wasn’t much, but he found some frozen pizza and managed to cook them before Jake returned. Rhett decided to bring Jake his pizza and eat his own meal quickly before gathering the cushions from their ruined fort. He set them up like two twin-sized mattresses. He got the sheets and made up a bed for each of them. Jake skipped in soon after, wearing Link’s old green pajamas. He had left Link’s glasses in the office with the notebook. He laid down in the bed nearest to the door without a word.

Rhett wandered to the light switch, but before he could do anything, Jake whispered, “Don’t turn out the lights. Shadows are scary.”

“Okay. I won’t.” He joined Jake, lying on his mattress next to his friend’s. Jake closed his eyes and settled into the pillow, smiling the most innocent smile Rhett had seen grace Link’s face in years.

Rhett laughed to himself. He felt like he was a little kid again, having a sleepover. Just like children, the two of them couldn’t stay quiet for long. Jake was giggling until suddenly he shot upright. “WAIT!”

“What is it?” Rhett was nervous.  _Had he done something wrong?_

“You took the dinosaur sheets!”

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t even notice… We can switch.”

“No, it’s okay. I’m too sleepy to move.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Goodnight, Rhett!” He had said this at least five times already, but it seemed that this time, he meant it.

“Goodnight, Jake.”

Rhett laid still, trying his best to fall asleep.  He couldn’t silence his mind for long enough, though. After about twenty minutes, he looked over to his friend. He was clearly fast asleep, hopefully having peaceful dreams.

Acknowledging the fact that he probably wouldn’t be falling asleep himself any time soon, Rhett carefully stood and tiptoed into the office where Jake had been earlier. He wasn’t trying to snoop in Link’s things, but a page from the notebook was sitting on the floor. He couldn’t help but read what it said. Naturally, he was concerned and extremely curious.   _Should he go through the rest of the notebook or not?_

_ _


	31. Chapter 31

It didn’t take much for Rhett to convince himself to read through Link’s journal. It was obvious that Jake had left the paper on the floor as a sort of plea for help. Rhett was grateful that he wasn’t able to sleep and found the note instead of Link finding it himself. He would have been humiliated.

The notebook was sitting on top of the bag Jake had packed and left on Link’s desk chair. Rhett grabbed it and perched on the arm of the couch. He sighed deeply to steady himself before opening the journal. The first page was almost completely black. Scribbles covered it, obviously the product of pure rage. The tip of the pen had torn through the page in a couple spots. Rhett hoped that Derrick was the one responsible for the mess and not Link.

The next page was neat and tidy, obviously filled with Link’s own handwriting. “It looks like Derrick beat me to starting the journal for our therapist. Ha. Our. Plural. Who am I even talking to right now?” The color of the pen changed from black to blue. Link had come back at another point. “Derrick is killing me. The things I hear him say are terrifying. I’m scared for Rhett. Don’t get me wrong, I want nothing more than for him to be here with me, but… I don’t want to hurt him. I want him out of here so nothing bad happens. Please don’t hurt him, guys…”

Rhett skipped ahead a few pages. It was obvious that this author was Sam. “Link, just admit it to yourself! You’re in love with him. I can tell. I ache to feel his touch. But he knows when I’m the one fronting. He can tell when it’s me and not you. I need his body. Please, Link! Let me have it!”

Link responded. “Don’t try anything inappropriate, Sam. Rhett doesn’t need any more trouble than we’re already giving him.”

Derrick stepped in a few pages later. “FUCKING FAGGOTS! DIE!!! NOBODY CARES WHAT YOU THINK! I WANT TO HARM OUR BODY. I WANT TO KILL IT. IF ALL I AM IS A PART OF THIS BODY, IF WE’RE ALL FORCED TO SHARE THIS LIFE, DOESN’T THAT MEAN I HAVE THE RIGHT TO TAKE IT AWAY IF I WANT TO!?”

Rhett felt sick to his stomach. Instead of putting the notebook down, however, he read on. He flipped to some of the more recent entries.

Link wrote, “Sometimes I just wish I could stay inside forever and let the others take over everything. You all say that you need me, but you do such a good job of running things.”

Jake had written, “I’m happy Derrick isn’t bothering anybody anymore, but is he okay?” The entire bottom half of the page was covered in sad faces.

“He’ll be alright, Jake. Forget about him. –Link”

“I’ll take care of him for good. –Sam”

“What does that mean? –Jake”

“I’ll slit his evil throat. –Sam”

That was the last entry. The next page had been torn out, and Rhett assumed it was the note Jake had left for him. Rhett’s heart was beating a mile a minute. Was something bad going to happen soon? Jake seemed fine when he fell asleep…

Rhett wanted to leave a note in the journal, but knew it’d be a mistake. He was already invading Link’s privacy, and he didn’t want to upset the man. So, instead of writing anything, he left the notebook exactly where he found it and walked back to the set where the beds were set up. He sat down on the edge of his own mattress and studied Link’s face. He wondered if it was Link in there dreaming or one of the others. Either way, he looked content. “I love you,” Rhett whispered so softly that almost no sound left his mouth.

Rhett fell asleep at some point. He didn’t know when, but he did. And when he woke up, his back was in a horrendous amount of pain. He groaned and rolled over. It took him a moment to realize where he was.

“Heeey, big boy!” Sam sang. “You look like you had a rough night! Do you need a massage?”

“You know, Sam, normally I would say no…” Rhett groaned.

“Is that a yes!?”

“Yeah. A back rub would be amazing right now.”

“One back rub, coming right up.”

“Thanks, man.”

Sam instructed Rhett to roll over onto his stomach. He straddled his waist and ran his hands firmly up and down his back. “How’s this?”

“That feels amazing, Link.”

“Sam.”

“Right. Sam. Sorry.”

“So, I know you looked through our journal,” he mumbled. “How much did you read?”

With Sam’s hands still kneading the stiff muscles of his back, Rhett responded, his voice muffled by the pillow. “Not much. You really freaked Jake out last night.”

“About Derrick?”

“Mmmhmmm…”

“Don’t worry about that. We’re fine.”

“Where is Derrick?”

“Luke and I did what we had to do.”

“What does that mean?”

“He’s dead.”

“What?” Rhett sat up and faced his friend. “What do you mean ‘dead!?’”

“He’s dead. We killed him. Jake and Link didn’t see. All they know is that he hasn’t been talking. Well, yelling is a more accurate description.”

“You killed him? What does that mean?”

Sam cocked his head to one side. “Has Link explained what our inner world looks like?”

“Your inner world? No…”

“We, like, live in a hotel. We each have our own room. Luke and I broke in to Derrick’s last night while Jake was dreaming about fossils and race cars. We… You know what, I’m going to leave out the details. He’s gone. For good.”

“Jesus Christ, I had no idea… I just thought… I mean…”

“It’s not a black void like you might think. My place is pretty nice. Jake’s room is full of dinosaur toys and Power Rangers. If it weren’t for you, the little twerp would stay inside all the time!” Sam let out his signature giggle. “You’re welcome for getting rid of Derrick, by the way.”

“Th… Thank you,” Rhett whispered. “I think…”

“Do I get a kiss?”

“What? No, Sam.” Rhett tried to sound angry, but he let a small laugh slip out.

“Things are gonna get better, big boy.” Sam winked.

Link looked around the room in confusion before focusing on Rhett. “Why are we at the studio?”

“Jake wanted to have a sleepover.”

“Oh. Okay, I guess…”

“I talked to Jessie, Link.”

“Oh… What’d she say?”

Rhett wordlessly wrapped Link in his arms, resting his chin on the other man’s head. “She gave me permission to do whatever I felt I needed to do to make you happy.”

“Anything?” Link’s voice trembled.

“Anything. All she asked was that I didn’t talk to her about it.”

Rhett felt Link shudder against him. Tears were falling and he was having trouble breathing.

“Shhh,” Rhett whispered. “Calm down.”

“I’m so happy. I’m just… You didn’t talk to Christy yet, did you?”

“No, not yet. I thought you should do that.”

“Yeah. You’re right. What will she say, Rhett?”

“Hopefully the same thing that Jessie did.”

“I want to kiss you so badly right now.”

“Sam tried that a minute ago,” Rhett chuckled. “I wouldn’t let him.”

Link laughed. “Rhett, I need to tell you something…”

“What is it?”

“Everyone wants us to integrate. But… But it scares me.”

“Why?”

“Because what if I’m not me anymore? Plus, I’ll feel guilty. I’ll be taking the others away. And that’s not fair to them…” Link wiped away his tears and laughed, looking at the ceiling. “I care about them, yanno? I’m never alone, Rhett. Never. They deserve to have a life… I’m afraid to tell my therapist though.”

“Are you scared she’ll force you to try to get rid of them?”

“Yeah. I agreed to, but… I’m changing my mind.”

“She can’t make you do something you don’t want to do, Link. You need to do what’s best for you. If you want to keep Sam, Luke, and Jake around, then so be it.”

“What about Derrick?”

Rhett’s gaze fell to the floor. “Uh… I heard he was gone.”

“Gone?”

“Gone.”

Link closed his eyes and withdrew into himself. Rhett watched as the man focused hard on something he couldn’t comprehend. “I… I think you’re right… I think he’s…”

“We’re gonna work things out, Link. Everything’s gonna be okay, whether your alters are with us or not.”

“I know we haven’t talked to Christy yet, but…”

Rhett didn’t need to wait for Link to finish his thought. He cupped the side of his face and leaned in, allowing their lips to collide. “I love you with all my heart, Link. All of you.”

Link moved back from the kiss and dried his face again. “I need to call Christy, like, right now.”


	32. Chapter 32

To give Link some privacy while he was on the phone, Rhett locked himself in the office. He passed the time by exploring the Kommunity. People were posting theory after theory about why they were on hiatus. None of them were close to the truth. Nobody would be able to guess what was truly happening. A knock rang through the room. “Yeah?”

Link walked in and sat down on the floor next to Rhett’s desk. Rhett wasn’t able to tell which alter was there. As soon as he spoke, however, it became obvious. “Good news, Big Boy!”

“Hey, Sam. What’s up?”

“I was listening in on the conversation between Link and his wifey, and you’re going to be happy with how it ended.”

“Yeah?” Rhett hesitated before continuing. “I’d rather talk to Link about it.”

Sam got to his feet and spun Rhett’s chair so that it was facing him. He then stepped forward and straddled Rhett’s lap. “Why?” Sam whined.

“Because this isn’t about you and I. It’s about Link and I.”

Sam began grinding his hip and smiled. “Alright, I get it. As long as I get my turn. Deal?”

“I can’t make any promises, Sam.”

“Humph. Jerk.” Sam got up from Rhett’s lap and seductively crossed the room, swinging his hips to and fro. “I’ll convince you soon.”

Rhett rolled his eyes. “Just let me talk to Link, please.”

“Have I been up here for long?” Link asked softly after a moment.

“No, Sam just walked in here and started flirting.”

“Oh, okay.” Link smiled and sat in the chair by his own desk. “So, Christy took everything pretty well.”

Rhett nodded. “After the whole D.I.D. thing, I’d be surprised if she didn’t.”

“Good point.”

“What did you tell her, exactly?”

“I told her that I have feelings for you. I told her that we kissed, and that… And I told her that you already had a chat with Jessie.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Well?”

“She wasn’t surprised. Like,  _at all._  She pretty much said what Jessie did.”

“She’s okay with us…being with each other?”

“Whatever makes me happy, Rhett.”

The two men smiled at each other. Link looked down at his lap and twirled his thumbs together. His expression changed slightly, and when he looked up again, Jake was there. “I’m bored!”

“Link and I—“

“Let’s do something.”

“Like what?”

He shrugged. “Will you make me some waffles?”

“We don’t have any here, Jake.”

“That’s okay. I didn’t really want them anyway.” He began pacing around the room.

“Jake, if you’re so bored, why don’t you let Link come back out? We were having a nice conversation…”

“It’s more boring inside than out here, dummy! I can’t play with you when I’m inside!”

Rhett loved Jake, but he wasn’t done talking to Link yet. He sat in his chair in silence, watching his friend wander around the room picking things up, studying them as if he’d never seen them before, and putting them back down.

Absentmindedly, he spoke. “So, you’re allowed to kiss Link now?”

Rhett laughed to himself and looked at his feet. “Yep…”

“Is Luke allowed to kiss you?”

“I don’t think he wants to.”

“Is Sam allowed to?”

“I’m… I mean… I don’t know if I want him to.”

“Oh.” He nodded. “Well, he wants to. Badly.”

“I know.”

“I don’t want to kiss you, though.”

“Don’t worry, Jake. I know that.”

The room fell into silence. Neither person spoke for quite a while. It felt like an eternity before Link was back and walked over to Rhett, sitting on his lap. “Hey,” he mumbled.

Rhett wrapped an arm around his friend’s waist. “Sam was right here earlier,” he whispered.

“Yeah?”

“Mmmhmmm. He was trying to seduce me.”

“You didn’t give in?”

“No way. I want  _you._ ”

“I bet I could learn a thing or two from him,” Link mused.

“Based on our conversations, I’d say so.”

“Maybe we should let him educate us.”

“Not right away.”

“Yeah. I need to take things slowly.”

“Of course, Link. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Link leaned down and kissed Rhett’s lips softly. “I love the way your skin feels against mine.”

“Fuck, Link,” Rhett breathed.

Before he could continue, Link spoke. “I don’t know about you, but I feel ready to get back to GMM.”

“What? Seriously?” That had come from nowhere…

“Yeah. Seriously. I feel bad. And kind of bored.”

“I guess you’re right. But, do you think—“

“Don’t worry. I’ll be able to keep control of everyone.”

Rhett smiled, searching his friend’s eyes for any traces of uncertainty. “Okay. We’ll have to talk about new rules and stuff for the studio.”

“Staff meeting.”

“Definitely… Not now, though. I think we should head back home, get dinner, and call everyone to set something up.”

“Agreed.” Link hopped up and began gathering his things. Rhett did the same.

The drive home was spent in silence. Rhett kept his eyes on the road in front of him. He was unable to tell from Link’s body language which alter was out, so he didn’t say a word. His mind was racing. What would happen when they arrived back at Link’s house? Would they just order dinner and call the crew like they had planned? Or would the decades of unacknowledged passion bubble up to the surface finally?

Link had said earlier that he wanted to take things slow, and Rhett couldn’t agree more. Based on his friend’s apparent past, and the way things had been going recently, he didn’t want to force anything on Link. He didn’t want to risk triggering anything. However, Rhett knew that he couldn’t count on any one outcome. Their life, since Link’s diagnosis, had become a rollercoaster.

**_Rhett was just along for the ride._ **


	33. Chapter 33

The two friends ordered a couple of large pizzas for lunch. While they waited for the delivery man to arrive, Rhett sat on the couch alone. Link had disappeared down the hall, presumably in the bathroom or bedroom. Rhett had faith that he was alright, though, so he didn’t worry.

Link strolled back to where Rhett was when the doorbell rang. Rhett answered and paid for the food with his own money. He took the pizzas into the kitchen, got out some plates and cans of soda, and took the meal out to Link.

“Thanks,” the smaller man mumbled.

“No problem, brother. Do you want to watch something while we eat?”

“I’d rather just sit here and enjoy your company.”

“Oh. Well, I can’t argue with that,” Rhett chuckled, trying to hide the beginnings of a blush.

Link swung his legs onto the couch, resting them across Rhett’s lap. The two men began eating, enjoying the comfortable silence. As always, Rhett finished his slices long before Link did. He went back to the kitchen and grabbed a second helping. The moment he sat down again, Link went right back to his previous position.

He hadn’t realized that Link had finished his pizza. When Rhett ate, he found it difficult to focus on anything other than his food. But suddenly, his friend’s heel began grinding against his groin. His eyes widened and he dropped his last slice of pizza. He turned to see Link giving him a sultry grin.

Rhett’s brief excitement immediately transformed into exasperation. “Sam, don’t. I mean it.”

“Come on, Rhett!”

“No.” He brushed the man’s legs off of him. “I mean it. I’m so tired of trying to push you off of me.”

“Don’t you want me to teach you a few tricks before you get it on with Linkypoo? Just imagine how impressed he’ll be!”

“Link is making the first move. He is in the driver’s seat now. I’m not going to risk upsetting him at all. I’m sure some of your ‘tricks’ would do just that.”

Sam shrugged. “I’m just trying to help.”

For once, Sam sounded completely genuine. “I know, Sam,” Rhett sighed. “You’re trying to help the only way you know how. But I’m not taking any chances.”

“I get it. I’m sorry.”

“Thanks, man.”

After a brief moment of silence, Link rose to his feet and took both his and Rhett’s dishes into the kitchen, cleaning up. “Should we try to get in contact with the crew?” he called over his shoulder.

“If you feel up to it!”

He thought for a moment before responding, “Why don’t we just send a group text to set up a meeting?”

“Sounds good to me, brother.”

As Link continued washing dishes, Rhett took out his phone and began drafting the text. He had Link go over it before he hit send.

“Hey crew! Link and I have been chatting and we’ve decided that it’s time to start thinking about getting back to work. Link’s starting to get things a little more under control and he’s feeling pretty cooped up. Let me know when a good time to get together for a talk would be. See you all soon!”

“Sounds good,” Link smiled. He leaned over and pressed send himself. He surprised Rhett by giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

Rhett’s phone buzzed. Jen had responded almost immediately. “YAY! I’ve missed everyone!”

“We’ve missed you, too,” Rhett answered.

Link cleared his throat. “Uh, Rhett?”

“Yeah?”

“Can… Can we…sleep together tonight?”

Rhett’s face turned bright red and he became extremely flustered. “S…S…Sleep? Sleep together?”

“Not like that. I just meant… You’re so big and cuddly.”

“Oh. Okay. I get it.” Rhett laughed and scratched his beard awkwardly. “Yeah, of course we can do that. I’d love to. My back thanks you, too.”

“Shit, you must be so sore!”

“It’s not as bad as I thought it’d be. I’m okay. But it will be nice to be in a bed again.” The two men shared a sweet smile.

Slowly but surely, texts came in from each of the crew members. Everyone was eager to meet up at the studio, so the plan was to get together the next afternoon.

*~*~*~*~*

The two men spent the afternoon discussing ideas for future episodes of GMM. It was so nice to see Link getting excited for filming again. They couldn’t wait to see everyone in the crew.

At one point, Rhett turned to Link and saw him beginning to nod off. “Hey, man. You ready to get to bed?”

“I guess so. Today has been so amazing, Rhett.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. We’re so lucky to have the wives we do. Thank you so much for being here with me,” he mumbled sleepily.

“Of course, brother. Let’s go.” The taller man stood and took Link’s hand, guiding him into the bedroom.

After brushing their teeth and changing into their pajamas, the two men crawled into Link’s small bed. Link turned onto his side so he faced the wall away from Rhett. The larger man wasn’t quite sure what to do with his limbs, so he sat awkwardly waiting for some sort of a signal from Link.

“What are you waiting for?” he whined softly. “I want cuddles.”

Rhett smiled. “I guess I’m the big spoon?”

“Mmmhmmm…”

Rhett got comfortable before draping an arm lazily around Link’s abdomen and pressing his chest up against his back.

“I feel so safe,” Link whispered.

“Good. You are.” Rhett kissed the base of Link’s neck, breathing in his naturally clean scent.

Link snuggled back, plastering himself as close to Rhett as he physically could be. It was a matter of seconds before the man dozed off. Rhett ran his thumb gently across the man’s chest as it rose and fell slowly with each deep breath. The warmth from Link’s body was heaven compared to the single blanket out on the couch. Just as Rhett began to slip into the dream world as well, he was snapped back to reality when Link started mumbling, still asleep. He couldn’t make out any words, but he sounded scared.

“Shhh,” Rhett whispered, trying to calm the man.

His head started shaking and his soft cries started getting louder.

Rhett hated to hear Link in distress, so he decided to gently shake him awake. He gasped as his eyes shot open. “Wow…”

“Sorry I woke you up. You were having a nightmare.”

“Thanks,” he sighed.

“Are you okay?”

Link gave Rhett a sad smile, nodding. “Yeah. Fine.” He laid back down, facing Rhett this time. Their noses were almost touching.

“Have sweet dreams, Link.”

“You too, Rhett.”

Link rested his forehead against Rhett’s chest and sighed deeply, falling asleep again immediately. Rhett’s consciousness slipped away soon after.


	34. Chapter 34

When Rhett awoke, the entire bed was damp. His immediate reaction was to assume Link had wet the bed again, but he soon realized it was sweat. The warm Los Angeles weather combined with the comforter on Link’s bed and their shared body heat proved to be a little too much. The longer he was awake, the more uncomfortable he became. He wiped sweat from his forehead with his hand that wasn’t wrapped around Link. He thought about getting up, but he didn’t want to risk waking up Link. The man needed his sleep. 

It wasn’t long before Link began shifting around, slowly waking up. He stretched his arms, accidentally hitting Rhett in the face. The two chuckled sleepily. “Sorry,” Link smiled.

“It’s okay. I’m glad you’re awake, I’ve been dying to get up.”

“Shit, it’s warm in here…”

“Yeah.”

“You should’ve just gotten up!”

“I didn’t want to bother you.”

“Well, thanks. I’m gonna take a shower and get all cleaned up before we see everyone.”

“Good plan. I’ll take one when you’re done.”

“I’ll be quick.”

“Take your time. I’ll make us breakfast.”

As Link pulled himself from the confines of the sheets, Rhett couldn’t help but wish he could join him in the shower. If the circumstances were different, he’d just assume that he was invited. But, unless Link explicitly stated that he wanted to do something, Rhett wasn’t going to make any moves.

*~*~*~*~*

On the drive to the studio, Link seemed absolutely giddy. It warmed Rhett’s heart to see him so excited. He really did seem to be getting better at handling himself.

When they finally arrived at the studio parking lot, everyone else’s cars were already there. “Looks like we’re late,” Rhett mused.

When the two men entered the building, the faces of their employees lit up.

“Hey, guys,” Link said quietly, scratching the back of his neck. Link was obviously excited to see everyone until he actually saw everyone.

Jen rose to her feet and pulled the man into a tight hug.

Stevie stood as well. “How are you!?” she asked, gripping Link’s arm.

“I’m doing better since we’ve last seen each other,” he said to everyone in the room.

“So, did we understand what Rhett said? Are you ready to get back to work?” Eddie asked.

“I think so. I’m much more stable now.”

“How’s… What was the violent one’s name? Derrick?” Chase was clearly a bit nervous.

“Derrick is gone. Completely. Jake, Sam, and Luke are still here, though. But we’ve talked—“

“You’ve talked?” Rhett interrupted.

“Yeah. Yesterday, when we were waiting for the pizza to come.”

“Oh, when you were off by yourself?”

“Exactly. The four of us had a long chat.”

“About what?” Jen asked.

“About work. I made Sam and Jake agree to stay in while we’re filming. Luke is allowed to come out if he has to in order to keep the other two inside. I’m not sure how well that plan is going to work, but it’ll have to do for now.”

“Well, I guess we’ll see,” Rhett muttered, resting a hand on Link’s shoulder.

“So, I guess we should talk about what we’re gonna do for our first episode back, right?” Stevie asked.

“Definitely.” Everyone agreed.

“I know it’s pretty serious,” Stevie began carefully, “but… Would you be willing to explain what you’ve been dealing with on the show?”

Link shifted his weight. “I don’t know… I don’t know if it’d be appropriate. You guys don’t even know the half of it.”

“Not to pressure you or anything, but I think giving the audience at least a little information would be nice.” Everyone nodded.

“I mean, I guess you’re right…” Link sighed.

Rhett smiled. “Plus, depending on how everyone reacts to the information, we might be able to ignore that agreement between the alters.”

“I’m sure some folks wouldn’t appreciate it, but I wouldn’t doubt the more open-minded mythical beasts would adore Jake and Sam,” Jen added.

“Can I, uh, talk to you in private for a second, Rhett?” Link whispered.

“Of course, brother!” The two men wandered into their office and closed the door. When they were alone, Rhett asked, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, totally. I’m just… Do you… Uh… Do you think we should tell everyone?”

“Tell them what?”

“About… About us.”

“Oh! Oh… If you want to! I mean, I think we definitely need to eventually, but there’s a lot going on right now…”

“Okay, well, should I, uh, explain why this is happening?”

“Link, what happened to you is extremely personal. If you want to tell everyone, if it’ll help you get through everything, by all means, tell them. But don’t feel like you’re obligated to say anything.”

Link nodded, deep in thought. “You’re right. I… I’ll think about it.”

“Do you think you’re comfortable explaining things on the show? Obviously not all the details you’re thinking about telling the crew, but…”

“I think so, yeah. I feel like I have to. It wouldn’t be fair to everyone to keep our disappearance a mystery.”

“Whatever you want to tell everyone,” Rhett said softly, “is okay with me. I’m right behind you, brother.”

“I think I’m gonna tell the crew everything.”

“Everything?”

“Yeah.”

“Alright. I’m here to back you up if you need it.”

“I love you, Rhett,” Link whispered. Rhett wrapped Link in a strong embrace.

“I love you, too. Let’s go back out there.”


	35. Chapter 35

“Okay, guys,” Link sighed, speaking to the crew once again. “I trust all of you. So, please don’t make me regret telling you what I’m about to tell you.”

Most of the crew members were sitting down already, but those who weren’t now joined them. A few of them gave Link an encouraging nod.

“This is extremely personal, but I feel like knowing at least some of the information will be useful when you’re dealing with…me.” He sighed deeply before beginning. “As you all know, Rhett and I have been best friends since first grade. My mom went through a lot of boyfriends while I was growing up… Since seeing all of you last, it’s become clear to me that her boyfriend Rick is the one who…caused this. He’d… Sorry.” Link stood up and looked at Rhett, clearly extremely uncomfortable. “I can’t do this, Rhett,” he whispered.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to.”

“Will you tell them for me?”

“Are you sure?” Rhett hesitated.

“Yeah. Please?”

“Alright.”

“Thank you…” Link hurried out of the room.

“Well, I guess it’s my job to tell you, now.”

“Is Link okay?” Chase asked.

“Yeah, he’s just… He’s a bit nervous and would rather me tell you guys what we’ve figured out.”

“Okay.”

“As I’m sure some of you have guessed by now, Rick would…molest Link.” Everyone in the room shifted uncomfortably. “His reasoning was that Link would spend too much time with me, so obviously he liked boys, which in his mind, was wrong. So, he’d show Link why it was wrong. He’d call Link ‘Princess’ and ask why he wasn’t having tea parties because of how ‘wimpy’ he was. It was bad…”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Stevie muttered under her breath.

Chewing on his lip for a moment, Rhett continued. “So, that brings us to our first new rule. If Jake is out, do not say or do anything that would make him feel like you’re calling him girly or anything.”

Everyone agreed to the rule. Jen asked, “What does this mean for characters, now? Is Link not going to play women anymore?”

“Not necessarily. Link’s fine with it, Luke is fine with it, and Sam would actually prefer it. We just have to be careful for Jake’s sake. One night, Sam was putting on makeup and Jake came out. He had a complete breakdown and wouldn’t let me touch him. He was just screaming ‘I’m a boy!’” Rhett realized he had never mentioned Sam to the interns. He paused for a moment, waiting for somebody to question him, but nobody seemed to.

“Alright, so that’s a huge rule,” Eddie acknowledged.

“Exactly. Now, I feel bad that Link’s not in here for this next part… But, he wants me to tell you without him, so I guess I will. Keep in mind, we’ve already worked everything out with Jessie and Christy.”

“Worked what out?” Alex and Chase asked simultaneously.

“Rick would accuse Link of having a crush on me. And the thing is, he did—does. We… We’ve kissed a couple of times recently…”

“Oh. I’m sure we’re all fine with that,” Stevie said happily. “You’re not gonna tell the fans, right?”

“I don’t think so. I’m leaving everything up to Link.”

“Good plan.”

“We’re still with our wives, but they have agreed to let us do whatever Link needs.”

“That’s so kind and understanding of them.” Jen smiled slightly.

“I agree… I’m trying to think if there’s anything else I need to tell you…”

The room was silent for a moment before Chase spoke up. “Uh, Rhett? I don’t think you ever told us who Sam is…”

Rhett sighed. “So, you noticed that… Where do I even begin with him? Well, he likes to call himself a ‘lady boy.’ He is extremely flamboyant and is constantly trying to make a move on me.” The room filled with giggles. “Yeah, he’s a bit of a handful.”

It was as if Sam could hear everything going on in the room. The door flung open and a devious smile spread across his face. “You all get to meet me, finally!” he sang. He sauntered over to the group and sprawled out across Rhett’s lap. “Take me in, in all my glory!”

Rhett gave everyone a look that said, ‘I told you so.’ Sam was just proving his point.

“You are all extremely gorgeous, hot damn… You! What’s your name?” Sam asked.

“I’m Eddie…” The crew member’s face turned bright red.

“Eddie. I like your beard. If it weren’t for this big boy,” he stroked Rhett’s hair, “I’d be all over you!” He winked.

“Well, I have a girlfriend, so it’s okay.”

Sam leaned in towards Rhett’s ear, whispering loudly for comedic effect. “He didn’t say he wasn’t interested!” The room filled with laughs. Rhett admitted that Sam was great at lightening the mood.

——

Rhett walked in to Link’s family room, only to find Sam painting his toe nails. “Hey, big boy!” He wiggled his eyebrows.

“I don’t know if you should be doing that… You might upset Jake.”

“I’m making Link look extra pretty for you! I might even break out my makeup.”

“Sam, please.”

“Oh, hush! You’ll love it.” He winked.

Rhett decided that it was best to ignore Sam. If Jake was upset by the ensemble, he’d deal with it. As he turned to walk back to the bedroom, he heard Sam call out something else. “I didn’t catch that, what?” He turned back around.

“I said, please take a shower and wash your bits before tonight! Link would appreciate it.” Sam stuck out his tongue.

Rhett’s heart skipped a beat. He assumed that this was merely Sam’s usual mischief, but something about his attitude told Rhett otherwise. Did Sam know that Link was considering making a move that night? Rhett didn’t question anything. He didn’t want to excite Sam at all…

He didn’t want to excite himself at all.


	36. Chapter 36

“Uh…”

Rhett heard a soft mumble from down the hall. He was relatively sure that it was Link himself and not one of the alters. He stood and walked towards his friend’s voice. “Everything good?” he asked.

“Y…yeah.” Link was working on his journal. “It’s just… Nothing.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, it’s nothing.” He slammed the journal shut and tossed it to the side. “How long have I had this makeup on?”

“Oh!” Rhett chuckled. He had completely forgotten about that. “A couple of hours.”

“Do you like it?” he winked.

Rhett was taken aback by the question. “Uh, I… I… Um… I don’t know how to answer that…”

Link got up and walked past Rhett into the bathroom. “I’m gonna wash it off, I feel goopy.”

“Sam’s gonna get mad, but alright. It’s getting kinda late. I’m gonna get ready for bed.”

“Wait!”

Rhett peaked around the doorway into the bathroom. “What?”

“Um… Just, wait for me, please.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. Just wait up.”

“Ok, whatever.”

Rhett slipped into the bedroom and changed into his sweatpants and removed his shirt. He sat on the edge of the bed and waited for Link to walk in. As he was waiting, his mind began to wander. Why was Link so jumpy all of a sudden? Rhett remembered what Sam was saying earlier that day. Was Link planning on doing…something?

Rhett was picking at his thumb nail when Link sat on the bed next to him. “Bed time?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Link muttered. “Yeah.” The two men crawled into bed from separate sides.

As soon as Rhett laid his head on the pillow, he felt a hand on his stomach. He opened one eye and peered up at his friend. “What?”

“I… I love you, Rhett,” he whispered.

“I love you too, buddy.”

“I mean…”

“I know what you mean, Link. Come on, let’s sleep.”

“I want… I want to…be with you.”

Rhett’s emotions began to spiral out of control. His heart sank. He was excited, but terrified. “I want to be with you, too, Link. But we don’t need to do anything yet.”

“I know we don’t need to, but… I want to.”

“What do you want to do, exactly?” Rhett sat up and wrapped his hand around Link’s.

Link couldn’t make eye-contact with the other man. “I don’t know.”

“Link, listen to me. If you’re not ready, there’s no rush. I’m fine waiting as long as you need to.”

“I know that, Rhett. I do. Just… I feel like I need…something.”

“Something?”

“Yeah. I’m craving…intimacy. I think.”

“I’d be glad to give you anything you need, Link. I just don’t want to do something that would make the situation worse.”

“I know. Can we just…”

“How about this: we lay here and cuddle and see what happens. I don’t want to rush anything. You’re in the driver’s seat, though.”

When Link nodded, a small smile spread across his face. Rhett laid back down, and Link followed. He placed a hand on the side of the bearded man’s face and kissed him gently. “That felt wonderful,” he sighed.

“Well, there’s more where that came from.” Rhett smiled. What they were doing was so simple. Just being with Link in bed, feeling the warmth from his body—that was enough. He was in no hurry for anything more. But he wasn’t opposed to going further. He was there for Link, whatever that meant.

The two men stayed in the other’s embrace for what felt like an eternity, kissing lips, cheeks, necks, wherever they felt they should. Rhett was allowing Link to be the more aggressive one. He was taking the smaller man’s lead. Lost in his emotions, Rhett was surprised when he felt Link’s hand against his crotch. “Link…” His breath hitched in his throat.

“Would you…?”

“Are you sure?”

Link bit his lip and nodded. “Please.”

“Sure, bud. Roll over.”

Link flipped onto his back and Rhett positioned himself between the man’s legs. He kissed his friends exposed belly, eliciting a small giggle. “I love you, Rhett.”

Rhett trailed his fingers along his friend’s sides. When he got to the elastic of his sweats, he hooked his thumbs under the waistband and pulled them down. His chest was tight. He almost felt like he could cry. After everything that Link had been through, the fact that he was allowing Rhett to be with him in such a vulnerable situation was overwhelming. He felt honored. Link was stripped of all his protection. He was giving Rhett everything.

Rhett hesitated, not quite sure what he was doing. He spat in his hand before gently grasping Link’s member. He was carefully watching the man’s face, analyzing his expressions, making sure he wasn’t doing anything wrong. When he became a bit more comfortable with the situation, he replaced his hand with his mouth. He ran his tongue up the man’s rather impressive length. Noting that Link hadn’t even began to get an erection yet, Rhett was scared that he was doing something wrong. He had the feeling that Link wouldn’t say anything even if he was, but he didn’t bring it up. He choked as he got the entire length into his mouth, but continued bobbing his head. He was trying his best to pleasure Link, but it just seemed like nothing was working. He even tried massaging the man’s balls, rubbing his abdomen, and anything else he could think of. It had been a good 45 minutes before he gave up. Rhett sat up slightly, wiped his mouth, and suddenly noticed a stream of tears running down the man’s face. “Oh, Link,” he gasped. He dragged himself up so that he was face-to-face with him. “Link, what’s wrong!?”

“I’m sorry, Rhett. I’m sorry.”

“Link, I told you, we don’t need to rush. You’re not ready. And that’s totally okay.”

“I want to, Rhett. I really do, but… My head…”

Rhett kissed Link’s forehead and wiped the tears away with his thumbs. “Are you just thinking about…stuff?”

“I guess. Sam was trying to force himself out, but I knew you’d get upset.”

“Were you just preoccupied with him?”

“Maybe.” He shrugged. “I wanted to let him deal with everything, because I… I feel bad, Rhett. I feel bad that I can’t… I don’t know. Get it up, or whatever. But I knew you’d know it was him and… Yeah. You weren’t doing anything wrong.”

“Link, I totally wasn’t expecting you to be ready yet. It’s okay! We have our whole lives to be together.”

Link’s tired eyes met Rhett’s as he smiled. “Yeah. I’m sorry.”

“Stop apologizing.” Link pulled up his pants and rolled over so that he was facing away from Rhett. The larger man sighed deeply and wrapped an arm around Link’s torso. “I love you,” he whispered.

Link didn’t respond. Instead, he switched off the bedroom light, covering them in the blackness of the night.


	37. Chapter 37

Rhett barely slept that night. He was worried about how Link would be feeling after their failed attempt at being intimate. He hoped that when his friend awoke, it would be Link himself and not one of his alters. Rhett wanted to speak with Link so he could make sure the man was alright.

He must’ve fallen asleep at some early hour in the morning, because it was Link who woke him up. “Hm?” he asked, groggily. He sat up in bed.

“Sorry. I wanted to let you sleep, but I’m lonely,” he said with a soft laugh.

“It’s okay. How are you feeling?”

“Fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” He kissed Rhett on the cheek. “I want you to read something.”

“What?” Rhett was confused.

Link handed the man his journal—the one the alters all used to communicate with each other.

“Why do you want me to read this, Link? This is super personal.”

“Well, a couple of reasons. I’ve felt like sharing it with you for a while now, but last night… I saw something that Sam wrote. It’s pretty damn funny.”

Rhett smiled. “When I heard you from the other room, I was worried it was something bad.”

“No. There is some pretty…intense…stuff in there, but not what I saw last night.”

“That’s a relief.”

“Go on, open it,” Link urged.

Rhett turned to a random page three quarters of the way through the book and began reading. It was filled with Jake’s handwriting.

> Ret is nice. He maeks good  waffels! He took me to ihop yesturday. I had a lot of choclat! Link yu ar smart four being his frend!

Rhett couldn’t help but let out a boisterous laugh. He looked down at Link, whose head was resting on his shoulder. “Jake is great.”

“I know. I love reading his little notes. Some of them are pretty hard to decipher, but… Yeah.” He chuckled. “Keep reading.”

“Okay.” Rhett skipped a few pages. Not for any particular reason, he was just anxious to see what Sam had written last night. Again, these pages were filled with Jake’s writings.

> Beep boop beep boop im a robot! Ret is my best frend in the hole world. Sam plees stop saying yucky things about him! I found a dino toy and it is mine now. Eddy gave me yummy food today. Eddy is nice. He has drawings on him. I want drawings on me!

“Jeez,” Rhett laughed. “This kid is too much.”

“I know. I thought you’d like to see this. I hear Jake talk about Eddie a lot. Anyway, you’re taking too long. Just flip to the end.”

“Fine.” Rhett turned to the very last page. This was clearly Sam’s doing. His handwriting reminded Rhett of the autographs you would get from the princesses at Disneyland. It was very swirly and there were hearts all over the place.

> ♥♥To Do List:  
> Sit on Rhett’s face  
> Suck Rhett’s dick  
> Have Rhett suck my dick  
> Be fucked in the ass by Rhett♥♥♥  
> Fuck Rhett in the ass  
> Fall in love! ♥  
> Be a beautiful princess

“Oh, wow.” Rhett was kind of in shock. “This is…”

“Gross?” Link laughed. “Sam really likes you.”

“Trust me, Link. That’s no secret.”

“You know, while you were still asleep this morning, we came up with a plan.”

“A plan? For what?”

“A sort of…compromise.”

Rhett felt like he knew what Link was talking about. “Go on…”

“So, I’ve had a difficult time…getting hard. Not just last night, but… I’ve tried jerking off in the shower a couple of times recently.” Link’s face turned bright red from embarrassment. “So, Sam said that he would come out and get things going and then let me take over. That way, he’d get a turn with you, but it’d be only for a minute, and then you and I could… Be with each other. The way we want.”

Rhett tugged at his beard, deep in thought. “I’m not gonna lie, Link. The thought of doing anything with Sam makes me a bit uncomfortable…”

“But—“

“BUT,” Rhett interrupted his friend, “if it’s what you need to do, I’m okay with it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I’m sure. I love you, Link.”

“I love you, too,” he whispered back, kissing the other man deeply.

“You seem really…good this morning,” Rhett mused as the two men got up to get breakfast.

“I’m feeling really good!”

“I’m so glad, Link. Do you know why?”

“I’m not entirely sure, but I think part of it is the fact that we’re starting to talk about getting back to work. I’ve been feeling pretty guilty for leaving the Beasts like we did. It was so unexpected.”

“Yeah, I get it. But it’s what you needed to do.”

“I know. I’ve just missed it.”

“Me too. Do you have any ideas for episodes?”

Jake’s voice filled the room. “Will you make me waffles?”

Rhett smiled softly. “Yeah, sure buddy.”

The conversation would have to wait.

*~*~*~*~*

The internetainers were about to leave Link’s home for a meeting they had planned. The two men and their crew were getting together to discuss the return of Good Mythical Morning. Just as they were about to walk out the door, Jake took control of Link and refused to go unless he could change his clothes. Rhett agreed to let him, but when he came back and saw Jake in a brand new dinosaur onesie, he sighed. “Jake, this is supposed to be a professional meeting.”

He pouted, looking as if he could start crying at any moment. “Please, Rhett? I’m comfy and Luke bought it for me and I love it and I—“

“Okay, okay. Fine. You can wear it. Let’s go.”

“YAY!” Jake squealed and ran to the car.

The two men entered the studio and Rhett led his friend to the room they reserved for “meetings.” All of the paid crew members, as well as the interns, were already there, sitting around the table and chatting. When their bosses entered, they greeted them.

Jake shouted, “I wanna sit next to Eddie!”

Eddie turned to Alex. “Sorry, bro. Gonna have to move.”

Alex switched seats, smirking at Rhett when they made eye contact.

Rhett sat at the head of the table, despite the fact that it made him feel slightly uncomfortable. He didn’t like feeling superior to everyone else. He shrugged it off. “Hey, guys. Thanks for coming! Link and I have been feeling a bit anxious to get back to work—especially Link. So, like I said in the email I sent, we’re just here to discuss episode ideas.”

“So, are we going to start season 8 without explaining anything?” Stevie asked.

Jen spoke up. “Yeah, are we going to pretend nothing happened?”

“I’m really not sure,” Rhett sighed. “I think we should start with that today.”

“Personally, I think we should at least explain ourselves a little bit,” Stevie offered.

Rhett was about to speak, but Jake beat him. “DOES THAT MEAN I GET TO BE ON THE SHOW?” he squealed, throwing his arms into the air in excitement. His volume nearly made Eddie jump out of his chair.

“We’ll have to talk to Link about that, Jake.” Rhett was really hoping that this afternoon would be all business—that he and Link would actually get things done without too many interruptions. As much as Rhett adored Jake and his antics, they needed to discuss important matters.

Jake pouted and covered his entire face with the hood of his onesie.

Eddie awkwardly placed a hand on his shoulder in an attempt to comfort him. “Jake,” Eddie whispered, “how ‘bout you and I go into the other room and play with some toys?”

“Nuh uh. I wanna say here.”

Eddie looked at Rhett as if to say “I tried.”

The group began to discuss the pros and cons of explaining their sudden, mysterious absence. Jake quietly got up and walked over to Stevie, stealing a pen and some paper from in front of her. He began silently drawing while the meeting went on.

Without getting Link’s opinion on the topic, which they unanimously agreed was the most important one, they thought it’d be nice to explain things to the audience—at least to some degree.

“That way,” Rhett thought aloud, “if he dissociates, it’ll be less of an issue.”

Jake quietly raised his hand.

“Yes, Jake?” Rhett asked.

“Do you have any color crayons?” he whispered shyly.

“There’s probably some around here somewhere…”

Jen went into the other room and returned with a small box of crayons, giving them to Jake with a smile. He thanked her and returned to his drawing.

From there, the conversation morphed into being about ideas for future episodes. They were brainstorming food challenges as well as more “Will It” episodes. The meeting would’ve ended long before it did, but Rhett was stalling in hopes that Link would come back out. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen.

When everyone stood up to leave, Jake didn’t move.

“Come on, buddy. It’s time to go home,” Rhett sighed.

“I drew you a picture…”

“Yeah?”

Jake nodded and handed the piece of paper to Rhett. The boy wouldn’t look up at him.

Rhett took the drawing and studied it. It was a picture of a small child and a tall man holding hands. Above the child, Jake had written his own name. Above the man, Jake had written, “Ret.” Like in most drawings done by little kids, there was a house and a tree, as well as a smiling sun in the sky. Of course, however, there was also a T-rex off to one side. Above everything else, Jake had used a black crayon to write a little note. It took Rhett quite some time to figure out what it was supposed to say: “I’m sorry for making you really mad and ruining the business meeting. You’re really nice.” It was then that it became obvious to the larger man that the tone of his voice betrayed the fact that he had been frustrated with Jake during the meeting.

He smiled down at Jake, kneeling. Jake had his head buried in his arms on the table. Rhett rested a hand on his back and whispered, “It’s okay, little buddy. I wasn’t mad. I was just a little stressed about this discussion and was hoping we’d be able to get Link involved. I can talk to him about everything later. It’s fine.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

After a moment of silence, Jake mumbled, “I wanna go home.”

“Are you okay?”

He nodded. “I want to play with my toys.”

“Alright. Let’s go.” Still carrying Jake’s drawing, Rhett took his friend’s hand and they headed out of the studio together. Rhett had the feeling that Jake wouldn’t be out for too much longer, and then he’d get to get Link caught up with what was discussed at the meeting.  


	38. Chapter 38

Rhett was right. Almost immediately after arriving at Link’s house, Jake left, leaving him to talk to Link about the meeting.

“I was wondering when I’d come to in this thing,” the smaller man mused, laughing tiredly at the onesie. “I’ve gotta admit, though, it’s really comfortable.”

“I’m not sure if you know, but we just got back from the meeting with the crew.”

“I missed the whole thing!?”

“Yeah. We were gone for longer than expected because I was hoping Jake would let you out, but he didn’t.”

“Sorry,” Link sighed.

“It’s okay. I should be the one apologizing.”

“Why?”

“I upset Jake. He thought I was mad at him. He spent the whole meeting drawing me this.” Rhett handed Link the drawing.

Link nodded, studying the paper. “So, what’d I miss?” He handed returned the drawing.

“Well, we all kind of agreed that our first episode back should give everyone at least a little information about why we were gone. But, of course, you have the final say. We’ll do whatever you feel comfortable with.”

“No, I totally agree. I’d feel bad for leaving it a big mystery.”

Rhett nodded. “Well, that was about it for the important stuff. We just brainstormed some more food challenges.”

“I, uh… Do you think it’d be fun to make a short main channel video introducing each of the alters? Like, one video for each of them. We could use a clip from each in GMM.”

“Link, I honestly think that’s a great idea. Jake will be extremely happy.”

Link smiled softly. “I’m so glad you’re okay with…them. I can’t imagine trying to put out as much content as we’re used to while also trying to hide…this.” He pointed at his forehead.

Rhett pulled the smaller man into an embrace. “I love you, buddy.”

The two men spent the afternoon jotting down ideas for both the main channel videos they had planned as well as episodes of GMM. Later in the evening, they were at the kitchen table sharing some Chinese food that they got delivered. Link, who was across from Rhett, had his feet resting on the man’s lap. They were sitting in silence. Rhett spoke up after a while. “So, are we going to…put your plan in action tonight?”

“Do you want to?”

“I want what you want, Link.” Rhett twirled his noodles around his fork, not looking at his friend.

“I want to be with you.”

“I’m just worried that you aren’t ready.” Rhett didn’t want Link to think he was trying to control him. He was just trying to make sure the man didn’t get hurt.

“I know that you’re worried, Rhett. But, I know myself. I know what I can and can’t do.”

Rhett wanted to argue, to say that lately, Link had no idea what he was doing, but he stayed quiet. He simply nodded. “Well, then it sounds like tonight will hopefully be the night.” He smiled softly, his heart fluttering.

*~*~*~*

The two men had just finished brushing their teeth. They hadn’t spoken about their plans for the night since dinner. It was now nearly midnight, and they were crawling into bed. Rhett’s anticipation had been building all evening.

Link rested his forehead against Rhett’s. Caressing his cheek, he muttered, “I… Are we still…doing this?”

“Yeah, if you want to,” Rhett breathed.

Link nodded, leaning in to kiss Rhett. Just as soon as Rhett began to feel himself getting hard, he was surprised when Link started grinding against his thigh. Rhett opened his eyes and immediately knew that Link was gone. “Hey, Sam,” he sighed.

“Hey, big boy!” he giggled. He playfully hit Rhett’s chest. “I knew it’d come to this!”

“You’re just here to—“

“I know, I know.” He rolled his eyes. “I am going to enjoy every second of this.”

Sam took Rhett’s hand and placed it against his crotch. “Don’t be shy, lover boy.”

Rhett clenched his jaw tight. This felt…wrong. This was Link’s body, but not Link. This wasn’t the man he was in love with. If it weren’t for the fact that he knew Link needed him to do this for them to be together, he would have gotten up right then and refused to even look at Sam. As he had told Link hundreds of times, however, he would do anything for his friend.

He closed his eyes as he firmly massaged the other man’s crotch. Sam’s moans did nothing at all for Rhett. He was brought out of his own head when Sam started yanking at the elastic of his boxers. “I’m still curious to see if you’re dick is as big as the rest of you! Come on, lemme see!”

“Sam, I—“

“Rhett, I’m gonna go away in a second. I’ve done my job. I just want to—“

“Okay, okay.” Rhett sat up, removing his boxers and grasping his length before laying on the mattress. “Are you happy now?” If he were being honest, Sam’s expression as he watched him stroke himself was quite amusing.

“I—uh… Oh. Oh my… You… I…” Sam was absolutely speechless. Rhett couldn’t help but chuckle. Keeping his promise, Sam was gone.

When Link’s eyes opened again, he blushed furiously. He looked away from Rhett, clearly not sure what to do. Rhett rested his hands on Link’s hips and whispered, “You are absolutely beautiful.”

Link smiled softly. “Was… Was Sam okay?”

“He did exactly what he said he’d do. He showed up, got you hard, and left. It was fine.”

“Good. Um, can… Would…” Link sighed, trying to decide how to say what he wanted to. “I… I think I want…”

“What do you want, Link?” Rhett encouraged him.

“I want you inside of me.”

“Are you absolutely sure?” When Link nodded, Rhett sat up, switching places with the other man.

“Sam stashed some lube and condoms under the bed,” Link laughed quietly.

“Dude’s always prepared, isn’t he?” Rhett joked. He blindly ran his hand around under the bed until he found what he was looking for. As he prepared himself, Link continued to hesitantly touch himself so that Sam’s actions wouldn’t have been in vain.

Rhett squeezed some of the lube on the fingers of his right hand. “Are you ready?” he asked sweetly. Link nodded. He looked nervous, yet excited. He spread his legs slightly further apart to give Rhett easier access.

Rhett leaned down and kissed Link right below his belly button. He carefully inserted his middle finger into Link, waiting for any reactions. Immediately, the smaller man gasped loudly. After relaxing him with one finger, he inserted another. Again, Link gasped. His gasps slowly transformed into soft moans. “Oh, Rhett,” he whimpered.

“Are you okay?”

“I… Yeah… I want you.”

“Okay,” he breathed. “One second.”

Rhett squeezed more lube onto his hand, massaging himself with a tight grip. His eyes traced Link’s entire body, sprawled out before him. Seeing the man completely vulnerable was one thing, but vulnerable and not struggling to enjoy himself was another. It was enough to make Rhett emotional. He positioned himself at Link’s entrance, hesitating. Link wrapped his legs around Rhett’s waist as if to encourage his actions. He went for it. Pushing into the smaller man, Rhett groaned. When he opened his eyes, he saw Link’s eyes squeezed shut. He was biting his lip hard.

“Are you okay?” Rhett breathed, still slowly pushing into the other man.

“Y—yeah.” Without opening his eyes, Link blindly motioned for Rhett to take his hand. He did. Rhett leaned forward, placing a gentle kiss on Link’s neck.

“Still good?” Rhett continued to check in with Link and his comfort again and again. Sighing deeply, Link nodded, a grin spreading across his face. “I love you, Link. I love you so much.”

“I love you too, Rhett.” With his free hand, Link continued to stroke himself at the same pace at which Rhett was rocking his hips.

Beginning to lose himself in the moment, Rhett was surprised when Link muttered between moans, “Slower, Rhett. Slower.”

“Sorry, baby.” Link had to remind Rhett to slow down 3 separate times.

They continued like that for an hour. Rhett was trembling, trying to keep himself together. He was shocked when Link grasped either side of his face and forced him to look him in the eye. The smaller man had been crying. “LINK!” Rhett gasped. “Link, what’s wrong?”

“Absolutely nothing is wrong, Rhett. Everything is perfect. I cannot contain myself, I’m so in love.” He sniffled. “I… I want to come together.”

Rhett rested his head on Link’s chest, smiling in relief. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah.” Link held Rhett’s head against his chest firmly, stroking his fingers through his hair.

Rhett began bucking his hips faster, his grunts increasing in volume with each second. Almost out of the blue, Link yelled out, his back arching. “RHETTTTT!” His entire body shuddered as he gasped desperately for air. Rhett felt the other man’s cum splatter across his chest, and that’s what did him in. He moaned deeply and released himself.

The two men stayed like that, unmoving, for what felt like an eternity. When Rhett finally sat up, tears were still streaming down Link’s face. They shared a smile before kissing passionately. “Thank you, Rhett. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

“I’ll always be here for you, Link. Always.”

“I know you weren’t completely comfortable with the whole Sam thing, but—“

Rhett interrupted him. “I’ll do anything for you.” They kissed again. “I need to sleep,” he chuckled.

“Me too.”

“I’ll see you in the morning, babe.”

Link gave Rhett one last kiss before rolling over and closing his eyes.

*~*~*

Rhett woke up, light streaming in from the window. He blindly reached out his arms for Link, but the bed was empty. “Link?” he called out. There was no response. Crawling out of bed, Rhett pulled on his sweatpants and softly padded down the hall. He heard soft breathing in another bedroom. He opened the door, and what he saw terrified him. Link was curled up in Lincoln’s bed, cuddling with a dinosaur plushy. Jake had come out at some point in the night, most likely to Rhett holding his naked body against him in bed. Rhett held a shaky hand up to his mouth. “No,” he thought. “No. No, no, no.”

“Link?” he asked, nervously, hoping it would be him who awoke instead of Jake.

The man sat up in the small bed. His eyes were wide—terrified. “DON’T!” he shrieked, when Rhett took a step toward him. “NO!” He threw a pillow at Rhett as hard as he could.

“Jake, listen to me. What happened last night—“

“THAT WAS WHAT THE EVIL MAN DID! YOU’RE THE EVIL MAN!”

Rhett’s eyes filled with tears as he left the room quickly.


	39. Chapter 39

Rhett was sitting on the couch in the living room with his head in his hands. He was shaking uncontrollably. He wasn’t sure if he had ever been so panicked. “What do I do?” he kept repeating to himself. He clearly needed to talk to Jake, but…how? Rhett decided to sit where he was, hoping that either Jake would come out of the bedroom for breakfast, or one of the other alters would.

About half an hour later, he heard footsteps approaching from behind. He didn’t lift his head from his hands. Instead, he waited for the other man to sit on the couch next to him. “Rhett,” Link whispered soothingly, “I came out here to thank you for last night, but… What’s wrong?”

“It’s Jake… He… He…” Rhett shook his head.

“Rhett? Please, tell me…”

“Last night, after we fell asleep in bed… He woke up. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Link nodded slowly. “Is he okay?”

“Nope.”

“Shit…”

“He thinks I’m just like the ‘evil man’ now.”

“Rhett, I don’t know what to say… Last night was magical for me. I mean, you saw me. I was crying tears of joy. I… I wish I could feel like that forever.” Link raised a shaky hand to Rhett’s cheek.

“I wish you could, too, buddy.” Rhett closed his eyes, resting his forehead against Link’s. “But right now, I have to deal with Jake. I just don’t know how. I’m absolutely terrified, Link…”

“Give me a hug. We’ll figure this out.”

The smaller man held his arms out in invitation. Rhett gladly accepted, curling a hand around the back of Link’s neck and holding him against his chest. He breathed in deeply, trying to steady his nerves. “You smell wonderful,” he half-heartedly laughed.

The circles Link had been briefly rubbing against Rhett’s back suddenly halted. His whole body tensed up, as did Rhett’s. Before Rhett could react and let go, Jake began sobbing. Limbs flailing, he whacked Rhett square in the jaw. “NO! STOP IT, RHETT! STOP! PLEASE!”

Rhett’s gut instinct was to hold the man down, but the physical contact worsened things. Rhett got a fist to the eye. He was knocked off the couch. On the floor and shielding his face, he said, “Jake, please, calm down. Everything is okay.”

“NO IT ISN’T!” Tears were streaming down the poor kid’s face.

Rhett reached out a hand towards Jake. “Jake, I—“

It was supposed to be a gesture of goodwill. Jake flinched, his hands covering his crotch. He dove face-first onto the couch. “NO, NO, NO! DON’T DO IT, RHETT! DON’T! I TOLD YOU I DIDN’T WANT YOU TO TOUCH ME LIKE SAM DID! I TOLD YOU BEFORE! I TOLD YOU! WHY DIDN’T YOU LISTEN!?” The shrill screams and the choking sobs escaping his friend were gut-wrenching. Jake sat up, still screaming. Snot and saliva were all over his face. His mouth hung open—he couldn’t catch his breath. His face was beet red. It was the face of pure, unadulterated terror. “I THOUGHT YOU WERE NICE! YOU’RE EVIL! EVIL! I HATE YOU!”

The sight was too much. Rhett’s tears escaped as well. “Jake, listen to me,” he pleaded. “I… I…”

Gasping for air, Jake asked, a bit more calmly, “Why are you crying!?”

“What you woke up to, Jake, that wasn’t… That wasn’t meant for you. It—“

“IT DOESN’T MATTER IF IT WAS MEANT FOR ME! IT’S WHAT THE EVIL MAN DID TO LINK!”

“Jake, do you know why what the evil man did was evil?”

He looked like he wanted to speak, but didn’t know what to say. After a while, he mumbled, “I just know it was scary… And… And it hurt…”

“Jake, I thought you said you’ve only been…around…for a little while?”

“I have been… But I know.” The boy wasn’t screaming anymore, but the tears hadn’t slowed one bit. He was still trembling from head to toe.

“Okay. Well, Jake, I know why it was evil.”

“…Why?”

“It was evil because Link was a little boy. You said it yourself a couple of weeks ago, Jake. It was a grown-up thing.”

“But, I’m not a grown-up, Rhett…” He sniffled, wiping his nose.

“I know, Jake. I know. But Link is a grown-up. And when two grown-ups love each other, they… They might have…sex. It’s a way to express their love…” He nervously scratched at his shirt collar.

Jake furrowed his eyebrows. “But… Wait… I’m confused.”

“Link and I love each other, Jake.”

“I know you like-like each other. Everyone knows that.”

“So, last night, Link and I decided to… We felt like…” He sighed, trying to come up with the correct phrasing. “Link and I love each other, Jake. And last night, we decided to show each other that. Link was so, so happy…” Rhett laughed to himself, staring at the ceiling. Images from the night before danced through his head. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him so happy. We didn’t think you’d wake up, Jake. We should’ve been more careful.”

“…I was naked.”

“I know, Jake. I know. I’m so sorry.”

“So, what the evil man did is actually good?” The boy looked more confused than ever.

“NO! No. Well, it’s only good when two loving adults agree to it.”

Jake nodded slowly. “Okay.”

“Do you forgive me, Jake? Are we friends again?”

A smile slowly spread onto his face. “Only if you buy me a new toy.”

Rhett breathed a sigh of relief. “You little twerp.”

“Well? Will you?”

“Sure. It’s gotta be cheap, though.”

“Deal.”

“Can I have a hug?” Rhett held out his arms.

Without any hesitation, Jake leapt forward. He wrapped his arms around Rhett tighter than ever before. The two sat together on the floor for a while. “I’m sorry I said you were the evil man.” Jake’s voice was muffled by the fabric of Rhett’s shirt.

“It’s okay, buddy. It’s okay.”


	40. Chapter 40

When Rhett went to the kitchen to make Jake the waffles that he requested nearly every morning, he noticed there was only one left. So, after they ate breakfast, Rhett decided to go to the grocery store. Jake wanted to come along. After what had happened earlier that morning, Rhett didn’t try to argue against it.

The two friends were walking slowly down the cereal aisle. Rhett was pushing the cart while Jake wandered shyly beside him. He wasn’t being his usual hyper self, but that didn’t surprise Rhett. The kid had been through a  _lot_  that morning.

“You can pick out anything you want, Jake,” Rhett offered.

“I don’t want cereal,” he responded quietly.

“Not even the chocolatey ones? What about Cookie Crisp?” Rhett stopped and handed Jake a box of the cereal. “Come on, they’re just cookies!”

“I want waffles. Do they have chocolate chip waffles?” A hopeful look spread across his face.

“I’d be shocked if they didn’t. Let’s keep going. Is there anything else you want?”

“Are there toys here?”

“Maybe.”

“You said you’d get me a toy.”

“I know, Jake. I will.” Rhett laughed.

Jake looked away quickly. He fidgeted, looking as if he were picking out a wedgie.

“You okay?” Rhett asked, barely paying attention as he continued down the aisle. When he didn’t get a response, he turned around. Jake was looking at the floor. His body language betrayed the fact that he was upset. Rhett was about to question him when his head rose. Sam had decided to join him.

“Heeeeey!” he sang, twirling around in a circle. He skipped forward, passing Rhett. He grabbed a box of Fruity Pebbles from the shelf and tossed it at Rhett, nearly hitting him in the face. “Pride Pebbles! You and Link are gay as fuck now. There’s no pride around our house. You need to change that, Mister. It’s unacceptable, if you ask me!”

“Sam,” Rhett sighed. “This isn’t  _our_  house. It’s Link’s house that he shares with Christy and the kids.”

“I don’t know where you’ve been. I haven’t seen any ‘Christy’s or any kids. Looks like it’s just you and Link.” Sam shrugged. “Still, there’s gotta be more pride.”

Rhett wanted to argue, but couldn’t. Jake had dinosaurs everywhere, so why shouldn’t Sam be able to have a few rainbows around? “Alright, whatever.”

“Saaahweeet!  Oh, Rhett!”

“What?”

“About last night…”

Rhett looked around to make sure there was nobody sharing the aisle with them. He knew the next thing out of Sam’s mouth would be…  _interesting._  “Yeah?”

“You fucking  _wrecked_  Link’s ass!”

“Sam!” Rhett hissed. “Shut up!”

The other man was absolutely giddy. “I mean, I can really feel it this morning. Kudos, Big Boy! And trust me, bae. You are  _big_.” Sam winked.

“Poor Jake,” Rhett whispered under his breath, just then realizing what was still bothering the boy. It wasn’t just that he woke up with Rhett. He now had to deal with the physical effects as well. “Sam, we’re in public. Can you please—“

Rhett was interrupted by Sam bending over, his palms flat on the floor. “I know you like this booty!” He giggled, shaking his ass.

Just then, an older woman turned into the aisle. She gasped, looking absolutely horrified. “My God! How…indecent!” She turned and quickly left.

“Sam, I mean it! Cut it out.”

“You’re no fun.” Sam shot Rhett a pout before spinning and skipping off to another part of the store.

Rhett didn’t bother to follow him. Instead, he continued to shop. He found some Nutella and thought it’d make a nice treat for Jake. The next aisle was the frozen section. He grabbed some pizzas, corn dogs, burritos–anything he thought would be easy to prepare. Just as he got to the waffles, a force hit him hard in the back, knocking the wind out of him. He caught himself from falling on the edge of his cart. When he turned around, he saw Jake, eyes wide with fear. He wrapped his arms around Rhett tightly. “Jake? What’s wrong, buddy!?”

“I got lost and I was scared and then some guy asked if I was okay but he was scary too and then I ran away.”

“Well, you found me! And look what’s in here!” He opened the freezer door.

“Waffles?” Jake smiled.

“Plain waffles, chocolate chip waffles, blueberry waffles—“ He was about to continue, but Jake interrupted him.

“I want them all.”

“Every single one?”

“Yeah.”

“You can’t have every single one, Jake. Pick…two.”

“But Rhett!” he whined. “You said I could have a toy, though.”

Rhett raised an eyebrow. “Waffles aren’t toys…”

“How ‘bout you don’t buy me a toy?”

“You want waffles instead of a toy?”

“Either that or… Can I be King for the day?”

“What? King?”

“Yeah. I’m in charge today, okay?”

Before Rhett had time to respond, Jake opened the freezer door again and began piling boxes of waffles into the cart. “Jake, only one box of each flavor, okay?”

Jake squinted his eyes at Rhett. “Okay, but not because you said so. I just think that’s a good idea.”

“Okay, Jake,” Rhett chuckled.

Agreeing to Jake’s request to be King for the day had a good chance of backfiring, but Rhett felt so guilty about that morning that he didn’t care.

“Thank you!” the boy gushed. The sound was like music to Rhett’s ears compared to earlier.

“No problem, buddy.” As they wandered slowly to the checkout lines, Rhett asked, “So, since you’re the king today, what’s your first rule?”

“MY FIRST DECREE,” Jake yelled, holding his arms out dramatically, “IS ‘NO YUCKY STUFF.’”

“Decree?” Rhett chuckled. “I agree, though. No yucky stuff. I don’t want a repeat of this morning.”

As Rhett was packing the groceries into the car, he felt arms wrap around his waist. A hand brushed firmly against his crotch. Sam whispered into his ear, “Wanna go home and make loooove?”

Rhett brushed his hands away. “Nope. Jake’s in charge today, and his first law is that we’re not allowed to do anything ‘yucky.’”

After a pause, Sam muttered, “That’s the only reason?”

“It’s  _a_  reason.”

“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I’ve got some tricks for you and Link. Just let me know when you want my secrets!”

Rhett couldn’t see his face, but the tone of voice alone was enough to let him know that he was teasing him. “Alright,” Rhett replied, only half paying attention at that point. “Get it the car, man. Let’s head home.”

As Rhett finished getting the stuff into the car, Sam sat in the passenger seat. When Rhett sat down behind the wheel, Jake was back. “Rhett?” he asked, putting on an air of importance.

“Yes, King Jake?” Rhett started up the car and began driving home.

“Um… Wait, I forgot what I was gonna say… OH! Rhett?”

“ _Yes,_  King Jake?” Rhett repeated with a chuckle.

“Can we stop at the studio on the way home?”

“Why?” Rhett raised an eyebrow.

“I remember seeing a crown the last time we were there. If I’m the king, I need a crown!”

“Alright.”

“YAY!!!” Jake threw his arms around Rhett. “I mean… Good answer, peasant.”

“PEASANT!?”

“Well, that’s what you are!”

“I thought I was your, like, helper or something!” Rhett laughed boisterously.

As he parked out front of the studio, Jake hopped out of the car. “Nope, you’re a peasant, peasant!”

Rhett unlocked the studio for the boy and waited by the front door for him to return. He came back with a large crown and a long, red cape. “Ready to go?” he asked.

“Yup!”

*~*~*~*

Back at the house, the two friends went about their day. Jake mostly sat on the couch and watched Power Rangers, ordering Rhett to bring him snacks. At one point, Link came forward. When he noticed the cape and the crown, he smiled at Rhett. “Well, I sure could get used to this…”

“Yeah, I’m a peasant today, apparently.” Rhett sat next to his friend.

“Ha! Peasant. I take it Jake is doing better now?”

“Yeah. We had a…talk.”

“I’m sorry,” Link sighed.

“I’m not gonna lie, it was awkward, but it’s okay. I handled it. I can tell he’s still a bit uncomfortable, but he’s alright.”

“Good.”

“You should see all the waffles he made me buy him.”

“Am I going to get sick?”

“It’s definitely a possibility,” Rhett laughed.

“Can we…mess around a little bit again tonight?” Link looked like he was leaning in to kiss Rhett on the cheek, but Jake showed up again.

“NO!” he shrieked. Rhett initially thought the boy was scared about the incoming kiss. However, he was ‘angry’ at the ‘peasant’ sharing the same seat as him. “You’re not allowed to sit on the same couch as the king!”

“So, I have to sit on the floor!?”

“Yeah.”

Rhett shrugged, moving to the floor as he was told. Jake rested his feet on Rhett’s shoulders. It was the least he could do. It was his punishment for not being as careful as he should’ve been.

“Hey, Jake?”

“That’s KING Jake to you, peasant!”

“King Jake?”

“What?”

“Does giving Link a kiss count as ‘yucky stuff?’”

“Hmmm… I’ll allow one bedtime kiss.”

“Really?” Rhett was shocked.

“Yes. ONE. If you give him two, you will be punished.”

“Fair enough,” Rhett laughed. The response pleasantly surprised him. “Oh, another thing…”

“What?”

“Link and I decided that we’d make some videos for the main channel that introduced the Beasts to all of you.”

“I GET TO BE ON THE SHOW!?”

“At least the main channel. Maybe the show. We’ll see.”

“YAY! RHETT, YOU’RE THE BEST!!!”

“I thought I was a peasant?” Rhett smiled.

“Oh. Oh yeah. I have a new decree!”

“What’s that?”

“I order you to let me be in a video.”

“Deal.”

“Go get me my dinosaur toys.”

“All of them?”

“Yeah.”

It was going to be a long day.


	41. Chapter 41

Rhett was by himself most of the day. He wasn’t trying to avoid Link or his alters, they were just doing their own thing. Even though Rhett had made up with Jake after their misunderstanding, he still felt some tension. He wasn’t surprised, though. If he were being honest, Jake had warmed back up to him quicker than he would’ve expected.

Rhett took his time cleaning the kitchen. As he finished putting away the dishes, he heard Jake in the other room playing with what he assumed were his G.I. Joe action figures. On a whim, he opened the video camera on his phone.

They were planning on filming videos for the main channel that introduced the alters, and Rhett thought it would be a good idea to get some candid shots. He slowly walked into the room that Jake was in, trying to keep his phone steady. Watching through the screen, he approached his friend.

“Pew pew pew!” Jake muttered. One of is action figures was holding a gun. He took his G.I. Joe and had him kick the other toy. He then grabbed a toy dinosaur and had his G.I. Joe start fighting with that.

“Hey, Jake!” Rhett called, getting the boy’s attention.

Jake looked up. “What are you doing?” he asked.

“Filming you for a video.”

“For the show!?”

“Maybe.”

“YAY!” Jake hopped up. “HELLO! I’m Jake I’m 7 I like dinosaurs and Power Rangers and waffles!”

“I didn’t even know exactly what age you were,” Rhett laughed.

“I’m 7,” he repeated.

“Anything else you want the people to know?”

“The T-Rex is overrated.”

“What?” Rhett chuckled.

_“It’s overrated!”_

“Well, what’s the  _coolest_  dinosaur?”

“Nothronychus!”

By now, Jake had gone back to playing with his toys. “I’ve never heard of that…” Rhett admitted.

“It’s my favorite because it shares the same ancestor as a T-Rex but it’s a herbivore so it’s a T-Rex that decided to go vegetarian and that’s pretty cool and nice.”

Rhett turned the camera so that he was filming himself. He smirked, eyebrows raised. “There you have it, Beasts. Jake’s favorite dinosaur is the…Nothronychus…or something…” He stopped recording.

“Aw, did you stop the video!?” Jake pouted.

“You seemed like you weren’t interested anymore!”

“I wanted to show everyone all my toys…”

“We’ll film more later. Maybe at the studio.”

Jake smiled. “Yay! Rhett?”

“What’s up?”

“Sam wants me to ask you if he gets to be in a video.”

“Yeah, he does, too.”

“He wants to know if he gets to show off his toys, too. I didn’t know he had toys…”

Rhett nearly choked on his own saliva. “He does  _not_  get to show off his toys.”

“Ha! I’m special,” Jake sang.

Seemingly out of nowhere, Jake’s entire aura changed. “Can you go away, now?” he whispered.

“Huh? Yeah, but… Why?”

Jake shook his head. He didn’t want to talk anymore. Rhett left the room. If Sam was talking about his “toys,” Jake would get upset about Rhett’s mistake again. Leaving him alone would probably be best for now.

He texted the video to the crew. “Think this will work for part of Jake’s video?” he asked. Everyone responded with positive feedback. Rhett decided that if Sam and Luke were out that night, he’d get little clips of them, too.

After surfing the internet for a couple of hours, Rhett wandered aimlessly back to the living room. Jake’s toys were gone and Link was nowhere to be found. Rhett shrugged, sank onto the sofa, and turned on the TV. Seemingly out of nowhere, Link was kneeling in front of him on the carpet. It scared Rhett, making him jump.

“What are you doing, man?”

“I… I wanted to thank you for…everything.”

Rhett hesitated before asking, “What are you talking about?”

“You’ve been so wonderful, Rhett. I can’t imagine how exhausting it is to deal with me. I want to spoil you for a bit.”

“Are… Are you saying…” Rhett struggled to find the words he was searching for as Link’s hand made it to his crotch. If it weren’t for the fact that Link was extremely shy in his motions and tone of voice, Rhett would’ve thought that Sam was messing with him. But by the look in the man’s eye alone, Rhett could tell it was Link.  _His_  Link. “Link, buddy. You don’t—“

“Stop. I know I don’t have to, Rhett. You’ve done so much for me. I don’t know how you’ve stayed so calm through everything. I really don’t. Just relax and let me do this for you.” Link had a small smile on his face.

“I mean…”

“If I’m being honest, I’d rather drag you into the bedroom and… _make love_ …” He chuckled at the phrase he chose. “But I don’t want you to have to have a repeat with Jake. And plus, I want this to be all about you.”

“Link,” Rhett exhaled deeply. He bit his lip, trying to hide a blush. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Without another word, Link unbuttoned Rhett’s jeans and yanked them down to the floor. Rhett rested his head against the back of the couch, leaving his hands to his sides.

Link massaged Rhett’s crotch through the thin layer of fabric that made up his boxers. Rhett immediately felt that familiar warmth growing in his lower abdomen. His eyes rolled as he involuntarily pushed harder against Link’s hand. He and Link had been intimate just a couple of nights prior, but… Rhett was tense. Until this very moment, he hadn’t realized how much had been craving this. He had made sure that their first time was all about Link. Now, he could just sit back and enjoy the sensations.

Soft moans of pleasure escaped from his half-open mouth with each of the slightest of movements from Link’s hand. When his member was finally freed and exposed to the cool air, he gasped. “Link,” he muttered, opening his eyes and looking down at the man.

Link was blushing furiously, Rhett’s hard cock in his hand. Link looked up. “Yeah?”

“Are you sure—“

“Shut your mouth.”

Both men chuckled. Rhett leaned back once more, but he didn’t close his eyes. He watched as Link slowly, gently dragged his finger tips from the base of his cock to the tip. Goosebumps spread throughout Rhett’s entire body as a shiver was sent up his spine. Link replaced his fingers with his tongue, adding a bit of moisture to what he was doing. Rhett bit his lip and glanced to his side, realizing the window was open. Thanks to his long arms, he was able to pull the blinds shut without leaving his seat and interrupting his friend.

“ _Liiink_ ,” he breathed, running a hand through his own hair.

That’s when Link attempted to take Rhett’s entire length into his mouth. He failed, choking. Rhett caressed Link’s cheek. “Babe, don’t do that to yourself.” The term ‘babe’ rolled right off of his tongue. He didn’t think about calling Link that, it just…happened.

Link didn’t push himself again. Instead, he kept his mouth to the first half of Rhett’s member, using his right hand to stroke the rest. His left hand was grasping Rhett’s thigh. It didn’t take long at all for Rhett’s legs to begin trembling. His breathing was erratic and he was having trouble sitting still.

“L…Link… I…” He was struggling to speak. He wanted to warn the other man before he came, just in case Link would gag. Despite his inability to get the words out, Link understood what he was trying to say.

Link got up, still stroking Rhett’s cock with his right hand. He placed his forehead against Rhett’s, locking eyes with him. “I love you, Rhett,” he whispered over and over again. Rhett couldn’t help but let out a string of breathless obscenities in response. With one final, drawn-out groan, he arched his back as his cum splattered over Link’s fingers and his own chest.

Once the convulsing turned into shaking, he glanced down and back up to his friend-turned-lover. “Link, I… I love you so much. I’ll do anything for you. Anything. I mean it. And you don’t have to thank me like this. Or at all. I know you care. I know you’re grateful.”

“I know, Rhett. I know I don’t have to. But it just feels right.”

Both men smiled. Link placed a gentle kiss on Rhett’s cheek. When he pulled back, Rhett immediately knew Sam was out. “Damn!” He acted upset, but his tone of voice let Rhett know he was only kidding. “I missed all the fun?”

Rhett pulled up his pants before heading into the kitchen to grab a napkin to wipe his chest off. He greeted Sam, who had followed closely behind him.

“Can I at least clean you up?” he begged.

Rhett was too calm and content to argue. He just sat at the table, handing Sam the napkin. “Go for it,” he breathed.

“Seriously?” When Rhett didn’t respond, Sam tossed the napkin to the side. Instead, he bent down and began lapping up the slowly drying cum with his tongue.

Rhett gasped. “Hey!” he bellowed, in shock.

“You said I could clean up!” Sam shrugged, winking.

“You know, normally I would get frustrated, but… I just want to sit here and bask in the afterglow of what just happened,” Rhett admitted.

Sam grinned and went back to work. 


	42. Chapter 42

Since the incident in the kitchen with Sam, he had been following closely behind Rhett. It had been a few hours. It amused Rhett. Sam was acting like a cat that got its first taste of wet food and wouldn’t settle for anything else. He wasn’t trying to blatantly seduce Rhett like he usually would, though. He was just offering to help Rhett with chores, get him snacks, and do other small favors for him. Rhett wanted to film Sam for his video, but he wouldn’t go off and do his own thing, and therefore giving Rhett the opportunity to film him without him knowing.

“So, Sam,” he spoke after a while of silence, “about the video…”

“Oh! Are we going to film that now? Can I get all dolled up?” He spun in a circle before posing with one hand on his hip and the other in the air.

“I guess we can get a little something recorded. I wanted the footage on my cellphone to be, like, you in your own little world. Not something put on for the camera.”

“Nuh uh.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m in charge of the camera at all times. You’re only gonna get my good side, honey! I’ll be right back!” He ran down the hall, presumably to put on some makeup and change his clothes.

“Wait, hold on!” Rhett called after him. “Sam, let me talk to Link first.”

“Why?” he pouted. When Rhett didn’t say anything, Sam sighed and dipped his head. Link was back.

“What’s up?” he asked. He was obviously trying to act like he wasn’t confused. It had been quite a while since Link’s diagnosis, but he’d never get used to waking up in random places.

“I was talking to Sam about filming his bit for the video we’re planning.”

“Oh yeah?”

“He wanted to do his makeup and stuff. I figured we might as well go down to the studio and film…whatever we want, really. I don’t know if you just want to get some footage for the main channel, or if you want to film a couple of GMMs. What are you feeling up to, buddy?”

He thought for a moment. “I mean, it’s getting a little bit late, but it might be fun to film an episode. Have you asked any of the crew yet?”

“No…” Rhett admitted. “I just thought if nobody was available, we could do it ourselves. Like we used to, you know?”

The two men smiled at each other, a pang of nostalgia washing over them. “Alright,” Link whispered. “If any of the crew can show up, we could make it into a mini celebration. Order pizza and stuff.”

“I think that sounds awesome.”

*~*~*~*~*~*

Rhett had texted everyone in the crew, letting them know what the plan was. When the two internetainers arrived at their studio, the parking lot was already full of cars. They smiled at each other. Everyone was just as eager to get back to work as they were.

Upon entering the building, a cacophony of applause rang out. Everyone gave hugs to their bosses. Comments such as, “It’s been too long,” “I missed you,” and “It’s good to get back to work,” filled the room.

After a brief chat with the members of the crew that they hadn’t seen in a while, Rhett spoke up so the whole room could hear him. “I guess we should head down to the set, huh?”

Stevie clapped her hands and led the parade of people down the hall. The lights turning on made both Rhett and Link emotional. They both felt horrible for leaving the Beasts for such a long time with no explanation.

_But they were back._

Everyone jostled around the small room to their usual spots, including Rhett and Link. When everyone was settled and the equipment was turned on, they realized they hadn’t discussed anything about the episode. How were they going to open it? What was the pace of the conversation going to be? What was the plan for GMMore? When these questions were verbalized, they unanimously agreed that this wouldn’t be like the normal episodes they recorded. This would have a feel more reminiscent of GMCL. It was going to be relaxed and not…commercial. This was the time to sit down and have an honest conversation with their fans.

Stevie signaled that the camera was rolling.

“Hey, Mythical Beasts!” Rhett grinned.

“We’re back!” Link exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air.

“Let’s talk about that!” Rhett finished.

They left a brief pause for the intro, and then began to chat. Rhett let Link begin.

“Hey, guys! I’m going to start things off by saying thank you. Thank you for waiting for us to come back. Thank you for being considerate. Thank you for worrying. I feel bad that we didn’t give any information about why we left, but that’s what we’re doing today!”

“We’ve got a lot of explaining to do,” Rhett admitted. “The reason why we left will probably affect the show, but not in a negative way.”

“Hopefully in a positive way!” Link agreed.

“I think you should just start, brother.”

“K.” Link looked directly into the camera, his facial expression turning a bit more serious. He sighed. “Alright, guys. I saw a lot of the theories y’all were posting on social media, and they were all wrong. A couple of months ago, I was diagnosed with something called Dissociative Identity Disorder. It’s a mental disorder. I know a lot of you won’t believe what I’m saying, some of you will probably think I’m acting, but I’m not. This is a really serious condition.” Link went on to explain in detail what this meant. He didn’t discuss the exact cause of his disorder, but pretty much everything else was brought up. While Link did the majority of the talking, Rhett sat back and listened. Once the serious medical talk was finished, Link turned to Rhett. “I guess it’s time to introduce them to the alters, huh?”

“Do you want to do that now, or in GMMore, or in a separate video?” Rhett asked.

“Let’s cut to Good Mythical More and try to get them out. If that doesn’t work, we’ll do the main channel thing.”

Rhett nodded. Speaking into the microphone, he said, “We forgot to get the wheel out, so… We’re not gonna do that today. Just click on over to GMMore!”

The crew signaled that the camera stopped recording.

“Was that good?” Link asked, clearly feeling self-conscious.

“It was great,” Jen said, reassuring him. Everyone else agreed.

“Well, I guess we should keep going…”

As soon as the camera was recording again, the conversation continued.

“Welcome to Good Mythical More,” Rhett said. “Sorry about the wheel not being here. Anyway, we’re gonna try to meet Link’s alters!”

“Like I said in the main episode, there’s three of them. Luke, Jake, and Sam. I’m gonna let Rhett take over here, since he’s the one that has to deal with them constantly.”

“Oh, uh…” Rhett paused. “We’ve been staying together at Link’s house. I’ve been sort of…taking care of him.”

“I didn’t want the kids to get scared,” Link quickly added. “Everything’s fine.”

“Yeah. ANYWAY,” Rhett bellowed, clapping his hands together for emphasis. “Let’s introduce our new friends to the Beasts. I’ll start with Luke. Luke is the same age as Link and I. He’s been with Link since he was little. He’s sort of the protector, from what he’s said. He’s kept everyone else silent for years, which is why we didn’t know about this until recently. Link, do you—“

When Rhett glanced at the man to ask whether or not he thought Luke would be willing to come forward, his head was already lowered.

“That’s what happens when one of the alters is…taking over,” Rhett explained.

Link’s head rose and he immediately removed his glasses, folding them and placing them in front of him. “Hello,” he said in a reserved tone. “Am I supposed to talk about myself?” he asked Rhett.

“Yeah.”

“Alright…” He sighed. “I’m Luke. I’m 37. I don’t need glasses, so if you’re watching an episode of this show and the glasses come off for seemingly no reason, you know it’s me. I try not to come out unless I absolutely have to, though. You probably won’t be seeing too much of me.”

“Why don’t you explain—“

“No.” Luke cut off Rhett’s suggestion.

“Huh?”

“I don’t feel comfortable divulging any personal information. I’m here to protect the system, and that’s it.”

Rhett had never heard the alters referred to as a ‘system’ before. “Oh,” was all he could say for a moment. “Alright, then.”

“May I leave, now?”

“Yeah. Thanks for coming out.”

Luke nodded and dipped his head. Link was back. “How long was I out?” he asked softly.

“Luke didn’t feel comfortable talking. He just said a few things.”

“Oh, sorry,” Link sighed. “Sam next?”

“Sure.” Link bowed his head again while Rhett began to introduce Sam. “Sam is a very flamboyant gay man. He cross dresses… He flirts… A LOT.” Rhett couldn’t help but blush.

Link’s head rose, but Sam clearly was not present. “Sam says he won’t come out.”

“What!?” Rhett was genuinely confused. “Why!? It was his idea that we film this in the first place!”

Link flashes a bashful smile. “He says he won’t go out in public without his makeup on. He says he has to look his absolute best for the camera, and that right now, I look like trash.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot he said that earlier…” Rhett let out a boisterous laugh. “I don’t think you look like trash, brother.” He gave him a hard pat on the back.

“Thanks. I guess we’ll save Sam’s introduction for another day… Which leaves Jake.”

“Jake has been begging to be on the show since the day I met him,” Rhett said with a grin. “I think you’ll love him.”

Without even the slightest of pauses, Jake squealed. “AM I ON THE SHOW!? AM I REALLY ON THE SHOW!?”

“Yeah, Jake! Introduce yourself!” Rhett encouraged.

“OH! Oh, okay! Oh my gosh. I’M JAKE! I’m seven years old! I…uh…uh…” He went silent, his eyes as wide as saucers.

“Go on, buddy! Tell them what you like!”

His grin returned immediately. “I love dinosaurs and Power Rangers and G.I. Joe and waffles! Rhett makes the bestest waffles.”

“You heard it here, first, folks. I make the best waffles,” Rhett bragged.

“RHETT IS MY BEST FRIEND IN THE WHOLE WORLD!” Jake threw his arms around Rhett, squeezing so tight Rhett was having trouble breathing. “At first, Luke was my best friend. But that was before I met Rhett! Eddie is awesome, too! He’s got drawings on his arms!!! OH! Rhett, can I talk about dinosaurs?” Jake released him from his iron grip.

“Sure, buddy,” Rhett laughed.

“THE T-REX IS OVERRATED!” he yelled, pointing into the camera.

Rhett knew that he boy’s rant was about to follow. “Tell them what’s not overrated, Jake.” Rhett went along with it.

“My favorite dinosaur is the Nothronychus! It’s related to the T-Rex, but it went vegetarian! He’s got teeny tiny arms just like the T-Rex! But the Nothronychus isn’t mean! It just eats plants, so he’s nice.”

“Jake’s favorite dinosaur is nice to the other dinosaurs,” Rhett said, smiling.

Jake frowned. “I wanted to show off all my toys, but they’re at home…”

“Sorry, buddy. Maybe next time,” Rhett offered.

“I get to be on again!?”

“Maybe!”

“Okay!”

“I guess now would be a good time to end this episode…” Rhett said after a brief pause. “Say goodbye, Jake.”

Waving, Jake yelled a goodbye. “Will you make me waffles?” he asked Rhett.

Everyone in the room laughed. That was surely where they’d cut.

“How ‘bout we get pizza instead?”

“Are we gonna have a party!?” Jake gasped, eyes wide.

“Yup!”

“YAY! PARTY!!!”

The equipment was turned off before everyone filed out of the room and prepared for a mini celebration. 


	43. Chapter 43

Late at night, Rhett noticed Link wrapped up in a blanket and sulking in the corner of the living room. When he approached, and Link looked up, he saw that his friend was wearing eyeliner.

“What are you doing?” he cautiously asked.

“Rhett McLaughlin, you embarrassed me in front of the whole entire internet.”

“Sam, what are you talking about?”

Rhett kneeled down so that he was on Sam’s level.

“It was my idea that we go down to the studio and film.”

“Yeah, I know…”

“What was the one thing I said?”

“What do you mean? The makeup?”

“Yes, the makeup!” Sam scoffed.

“Look, I’m sorry, Sam. I just forgot. I don’t think it’s that big of a—“ The look in Sam’s eye made Rhett stop mid-sentence. He looked absolutely hurt—betrayed, even. “What?”

“It’s a big deal to me, Rhett. I don’t think you understand that I don’t look anything like Link. This is not me!” He gestured at Link’s face. “I hate it! I… I don’t hate Link. Don’t get me wrong, Link is…an attractive guy. But I hate being stuck in here. Makeup helps me feel more comfortable. Not totally comfortable, obviously, but… It makes me feel better. I have some control over how I present myself.”

“I’m sorry, Sam,” Rhett sighed. “I didn’t realize it was so important to you. I’m sorry I embarrassed you.”

“I can’t be on the show, Rhett.”

“Why?” he asked. “I’m sure everyone would love you.” He wasn’t sure, but he wanted Sam to cheer up. It was odd seeing him so down.

“Oh, I know,” Sam laughed. “But you guys don’t edit… I don’t want to you to have to do a cut or whatever so I can go make myself look presentable.”

“We could—“

“I don’t want you to have to change your format for me.”

“We can give you your own segment…”

“I’ll just make my own channel!”

“Yeah? What would you do on it?” Rhett raised an eyebrow.

“Makeup tutorials!” Sam beamed, clearly getting excited over his idea. “I could play with your hair and makeup, too! It’ll be a fashion channel!”

“As long as you don’t do anything too inappropriate… I just don’t want Link and I to get in trouble.”

“As much as I joke, Rhett, I get it. I don’t want to ruin anything for you.” He paused and turned his head to Rhett. Without warning, he grabbed him, kissing him hard on the mouth. Giggles escaped his mouth when Rhett shoved him off of him.

“Personal space, Sam. Personal space,” Rhett reminded the man with a smile, patting him on the knee.

Sam did a little shimmy and winked. He stood, letting the blanket he wore fall to the floor. Underneath, he was wearing his favorite pink jockstrap and nothing else. Still smiling, Rhett rolled his eyes. He had gotten used to seeing this.

“Bedtime?” Sam asked seductively.

“Yep.” Rhett began to walk down the hall.

“Wait, really!?”

“It is time to go to bed. To sleep,” Rhett chuckled.

*~*~*~*~*

“RHETTTT!!! RHETTTT!!!”

Rhett awoke to Jake shrieking. He threw off the covers and ran down the hall, not bothering to put anything on other than his boxers. After a minute of listening carefully to his friend’s voice and searching the home, he found Jake in the bathroom.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, out of breath.

“Check it out!” He turned to face Rhett, grinning from ear to ear. “I asked Sam to give me zombie makeup and he did! Now I look super scary! Raaaawr!” He began approaching Rhett, arms outstretched.

Rhett chuckled, utterly relieved. “Man, Jake, you scared me…”

“I know! I look like a real life zombie!”

Rhett didn’t bother to correct him. “What time is it?”

“I dunno.”

Sam came out so suddenly that Rhett didn’t even notice for a moment. What gave it away was Sam got out makeup remover and began carefully cleaning his face. “Hey, sleepy head!” he beamed, making eye contact with Rhett through the mirror.

“Did I sleep in?”

“No, Jake woke up at 5. He was really bored, so I babysat for you.”

“Well, thank you, I guess.”

“You’re welcome. Are we going back to the studio today?”

“That’s the plan. Why?”

“I’m gonna bring some of my makeup! I can start my own channel while we’re there!”

“Alright. Don’t put any makeup on yet, though. Yanno, since we’re filming and all.”

“Why do you think I’m wiping this off, dipshit?” he giggled.

“Wow, harsh! Sorry.” 

“I still love you, hunk.”


	44. Chapter 44

They had just finished filming another episode of Good Mythical Morning and decided to take a short break. A couple of crew members were sent out to pick up lunch for the group. Rhett was alone in the office when he heard the door creak open. He glanced up from his laptop, only to see Sam trying to steal a camcorder.

“Why are you sneaking around?”

“I didn’t know if I was allowed to use this…”

“Go ahead. Just be careful with it.”

“Thank you, darling!” Sam spun in a circle and skipped out of the room.

Out of both curiosity and a bit of boredom, Rhett followed after him. He watched as Sam set up the camera on a pile of books. He sat in front of it on the floor, making sure he looked decent. He had already applied a bit of eyeliner and lip gloss. Hitting record, he began talking.

“Heeeey YouTube! You may recognize me as Link, yanno, from Rhett and Link! But I’m not Link. I’m Sam. Go over to his show with Rhett if you don’t already know who I am. ANYWAY! I’m starting my own channel! It’s gonna be a beauty channel! I’m gonna try to get that hunk Rhett to be a frequent guest, but no promises…” He winked. “Let me know what kind of makeup tutorial you want me to start with! I think I’ll do OOTDs… I’m super excited! LIKE, COMMENT, AND SUBSCRIBE!” He grinned, but the smile dropped after a moment. “I don’t know if I did that right… RHETT!” he called, clearly not aware of the fact that the man was standing right outside the door.

Rhett waited a moment before stepping in. “Yeah?”

Sam motioned for him to sit as well. “Do you tell people to ‘like, comment, and subscribe’? Did I do that right?”

“Yeah, you did.”

“HA! I tricked you! You’re in my video now!” Sam sat in Rhett’s lap, picking up the camera and holding it as if he were taking a selfie. “This channel is gonna be a ton of fun, so if you don’t subscribe, you’re missing out big time!” He winked and blew a kiss at the lens. He ended the recording. “That’s gonna be my sign-off!”

“Alright,” Rhett smiled, shoving Sam away and standing up. “I think lunch is here. Let’s go.”

“Do you think I need to edit my video?”

“Probably not this one,” Rhett thought as the two walked towards the small kitchen. “It’s more of a vlog type thing. Once you get into the content you’re really excited to make, you should edit.”

“Do you think the crew would be willing to help?”

“You’ll have to ask them about that.”

“Alright! Are you filming any more today?”

“One more episode, yeah.”

“So…”

“Yes, Sam. You do need to go wash your face.”

Sam stood on his toes, grasping Rhett’s face. He planted a rough kiss on the taller man’s cheek before running away. Rhett saw his reflection in a window. A pink lip mark was left in Sam’s place. He chuckled. He was definitely becoming more comfortable with Sam. It felt good. Greeting the crew, everyone dug in to the Mexican food Stevie had returned with. Rhett used a napkin to clean his face while the whole group discussed their plans for the day.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Rhett and Link were sitting at the desk on set, getting ready for filming another episode after having had lunch. This next episode was a taste test game. The two men would be blindfolded. The crew would hand them a gummy snack and they’d have to guess two things: which flavor it was, and which character it was. They thought it’d be a fun, relaxing end to the day.

After introducing the episode and preparing themselves with blindfolds, they began the game. They were each handed a gummy snack and began to study its contours.

“I THINK I KNOW WHAT IT IS!” Rhett sang confidently. “Alright, let’s taste these babies!” he bellowed.

Almost immediately after Rhett placed the gummy in his mouth, he heard the all too familiar gagging sound coming from Link.

“You okay, buddy?” he asked, concerned, but not too concerned.

“Oh!” Jen gasped loudly. A loud noise followed.

The sound of somebody vomiting filled the room. Rhett removed his blindfold. Jen had left the room quickly, knocking her chair over in the process. Link was doubled over, blindfold on the floor, puking into a trashcan.

“What the hell, man?” Rhett had no idea what was happening. “That didn’t taste bad! Did lunch mess with you or something?”

Link collapsed onto the floor. By now, the entire crew had gathered around, frantically tried to help any way they could. Rhett sat on the floor next to his best friend, placing a hand on his trembling shoulder. “You okay?”

Link’s voice was weak. “No… No… I… I can’t eat anymore, Rick! Don’t make me! Don’t! I…”

Rhett motioned for the crew to leave the room. They left as quickly as they could. Rhett started rubbing soothing circles on Link’s back, trying to shush him. “Link, Rick isn’t here. You’re okay. It’s just me. It’s Rhett. Calm down.”

The pleading died down. Jake had joined Rhett. Sniffling between tears, he mumbled, “I don’t like barf.”

“I know, buddy. Do you know what just happened?”

“Not really. What kind of gummies were those?”

Rhett wasn’t sure. He got up and found the package the crew was using. “They’re Disney princess shaped.”

“Oh.”

“What’s wrong?”

“The evil man.”

“What about him, Jake?” Rhett carefully asked.

Jake’s eyes closed tightly and he shook his head.

“What just happened?” Link was back. He was clearly embarrassed. He wouldn’t look Rhett in the eye.

“Why don’t you tell me?”

“I… I was having a flashback. It felt so real… I wasn’t… _here_.”

“You puked and started freaking out. You weren’t making much sense.”

“I… Rick… He was force-feeding me those  _exact same_  snacks until I vomited.”

“Link, I don’t even know what to say…” Rhett sighed.

“I’m sorry I ruined the episode…”

“Don’t. Don’t you dare apologize. You didn’t ruin anything. Let’s go home.”

“Yeah. Please.”

“You go out to the car. I’ll let the crew know what we’re doing.”

“Thank you, Rhett.” Link hugged Rhett tightly, burying his face in the base of his neck. “I love you so much.”

“I love you, too, Link. I’ll always be here for you.”


	45. Final

Rhett knocked on the bathroom door.

“Jake, Jessie and Christy are gonna be here soon. You’ve gotta get out of the bath now, buddy.”

“I don’t wanna,” he whined.

“You like Christy, though! She’s bringing pizza, just like last time!”

“But last time I got sick.”

“Just don’t eat as much!”

“Jake?” Rhett knocked on the door. “C’mon buddy. Please?”

Rhett heard the sound of the tub draining and the towel being removed from the rack on the wall. Soon, the door opened.

“How long was I in there?” Link asked, holding up his hands to show off how wrinkly he was.

“A couple of hours,” Rhett laughed. “Hurry up and get dressed. Jessie and Christy are almost here.”

“Cool. Be right back.” Link kissed Rhett on the cheek and wandered into the bedroom.

The wives showed up to the home together, each holding a box of pizza. Christy walked in first, kissing Link on the cheek, and Jessie followed, kissing her own husband. The women immediately headed to the kitchen and opened the boxes.

“Dig in, boys!” Jessie announced.

Almost immediately after the four adults settled at the dinner table, Jake came back out. He was acting extremely shy.

“What’s wrong, Jake?” Christy wondered, placing a hand gently on her husband’s child alter.

“I… It’s weird seeing you and J… J…”

“My name is Jessie,” Rhett’s wife reminded him.

“It’s weird seeing you and Jessie,” he muttered, shoving half a slice of pizza into his mouth.

“Why? We’ve hung out before! We’re friends!”

“I know, but you and Link kiss and you and Rhett kiss and now Link and Rhett kiss and then they did a grown-up thing and it scared me and that’s how babies are made and you all have babies which means you do the grown-up thing with them and you’re only supposed to do the grown-up thing with who you’re married to and—“

“JAKE!” Rhett barked. The boy clearly wasn’t planning on ending the sentence any time soon. “Jake, relax.”

“But it was scary, Rhett! And it’s weird and—“

Rhett was blushing furiously. “Jake, please. Stop.”

“It’s okay, Jake,” Christy assured him “We’ve all talked about it. We’re all okay with it.”

Link was back. “Why… Why is everyone looking at me like that?”

“Jake is uncomfortable with us being here,” Jessie explained. “You know, because… Because you’re only supposed to… _be with_ …your spouse.”

Halfway through taking a gulp of Diet Coke, Link spat out his mouthful all over the table. “Oh my gosh! Oh gosh. I’m so sorry.” He jumped up and frantically began cleaning up the mess he had made.

“It’s not your fault, Link,” Rhett said, patting his friend on the back.

“How are the kids?” Link asked Christy, changing the subject quickly.

“They really miss you, but we’re doing well.”

“I miss ‘em too.”

“Do you think you’ll come home at some point?” Rhett asked her.

Christy scrunched up her face, deep in thought. She took a small sip from her wine glass before answering. “You know, I’m not sure. The kids want to, and I know they miss Link. But… It’d be odd. And I don’t want to get in the way of your relationship with Rhett…”

“Christy,” Link sighed. “Don’t base your decision off of Rhett and I being able to be together.”

“Would you be comfortable having the kids around the alters, honey? Do you think they’d understand?”

“I really don’t know, babe. I really don’t. But, now that Derrick is gone, I... There’s no… _danger_ …”

“That’s true,” Rhett agreed. “I honestly think we should try going back to our own homes.”

“Have you explained things to them yet?” Link asked his wife, holding her hands in his own.

“Only a little bit. I wanted you to be there.”

The man nodded, his hair falling into his face. “I really want to see them again. I think we should try to be a family again.”

“But… What about you and Rhett?” Christy asked, looking at the taller man and his wife.

“We’ll deal with it, Christy,” Rhett promised. He didn’t say it aloud, but he thought to himself about the sofa bed at the studio.

Link’s body language changed suddenly and obviously. Sam was there.

“Okay. I heard some adult talk!”

“Sam—“ Rhett warned.

“No, Rhett. Don’t interrupt me.” He turned to Jessie. “Mrs. McLaughlin, I’m so glad you decided to allow Rhett and Link here to fuck each other.”

“Uh…” Her mouth hung open. “Why…?”

“It’d be a crime to keep that all to yourself. That man is hung.”

“Oh!” she gasped, a smile forming. “Wow, well… I…”

“I mean, yummy!” Sam got up to sit on Rhett’s lap. Rhett started to protest, but Sam overpowered him. Stroking his beard, Sam cooed, “Look at you, you gorgeous human being! You’re so hot. Oh my god. I just want that dick right now.” He grunted, followed by a light-hearted giggle.

“SAM! Jesus… Stop it.”

“He’s right, though,” Jessie whispered.

“Jessie!” Rhett gasped, absolutely shocked.

“YES!” Sam gave the woman a high-five.

*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*

“Are you ready?” Rhett asked, rubbing Link’s tense shoulders.

“I… No. Yes. I don’t know.”

Christy was bringing their three kids over to the house. It’d been a long time since they’d been able to see their dad, and the adults all agreed that Link seemed well enough to be around them.

The doorbell rang.

“Oh no. Rhett, I… I don’t know about this. What if—“

“Link, look at me.” The man spun around. Rhett cupped his face and looked him in the eye. “You are their father. They’re excited to see you. It’s gonna be okay.”

Link nodded and walked to the door.

“DADDY!” all three children squealed.

Link kneeled down and outstretched his arms. All three children clung to him. “I missed you guys so much.” He kissed Lily on the head.

Rhett could hear that he was trying to fight back tears.

“Say hi to Rhett, kids,” Link muttered.

They waved.

“Daddy, are you sick?” Lando asked suddenly. He immediately went back to sucking his thumb.

“Wow, just gonna get right to it, huh?” he sighed. “Let’s go sit down on the couch, okay?”

The kids all ran into the living room. Christy reassuringly hugged her husband before following the kids down the hall. Rhett placed his hand on the small of his friend’s back, leading him to his family.

As soon as he sat down, the kids piled onto him.

“Are you okay, Dad?” Lincoln mumbled.

“There’s been a lot going on, guys. What has your mom told you?”

“Just that you were sick,” Lily responded.

“Well, I… I have something called Dissociative Identity Disorder,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Huh?” The kids clearly had no idea what their dad said.

“The kind of sick that I am… It makes it so other…people…are… I have different people in…in my head.”

“You what?” Lily looked disturbed.

“I know it sounds scary, kids. But it’s okay.”

“There’s other people in your head?” Lincoln asked.

“They’re… They’re just like you and me. But we share a space.”

“Who are they?” Lily questioned.

“Jake, Sam, and Luke. Jake is between Lincoln and Lando’s age. Sam and Luke are my age. Luke is just like me, but Sam is very…girly.”

The kids nodded, trying to understand what their father was telling them.

Without warning, Sam came out. “Oh!” he gasped. “Children!”

Lando started crying.

“Oh no! No, no, no. Shhhh, it’s okay, little buddy!” Sam pulled the toddler in for a hug. Rhett and Christy were both utterly shocked when the boy calmed down almost immediately. Lando was absolutely dumbfounded.

“Dad?” Lincoln asked.

“I’m Sam, sweetie,” he explained.

“You live in my dad’s head?” He raised an eyebrow.

Sam nodded, rubbing soothing circles on Lando’s back. “What’re your names?” he asked.

“I’m… I’m Lincoln.”

“You look just like your dad!” Sam smiled.

“That’s Lando,” he pointed at the toddler.

“Lando? Like, Star Wars?”

“Yeah.”

“Your dad’s a dork!” he laughed. The kids clearly loved hearing that.

“I’m Lily…”

“You have beautiful hair!” Sam gushed. “Do you like braids?”

“Sometimes…”

“I can braid hair better than anyone.”

“Really?”

“You bet. What about makeup?”

“I don’t wear makeup yet.”

“Well, when you do, I’ll be more than happy to help you learn.”

“Wow,” Christy whispered to Rhett. “He’s… He’s great with the kids…”

“No kidding…”

“Can we talk to Jake?” Lincoln asked.

“Aw, you’re gonna make me leave already?” Sam teased. “Okaaaay.”

Jake gasped when he came out. “Who… Who are you?” he muttered.

“Jake,” Christy stepped in, “these are my kids with Link. Lando, Lincoln, and Lily.”

“Uh, hi…” Lily began.

Jake carefully removed him from his lap, placing him on the couch to his left. “I’m Jake…”

“Hi, Jake,” Lincoln said.

“Do you like G.I. Joe?” Jake nearly shouted.

“Yeah,” the boy giggled.

“What about Power Rangers?”

“Yeah!”

“Christy?”

“Yes, Jake?”

“Can I go get some of my toys so L…L…”

“I’m Lincoln.”

“So Lincoln and I can play?” Jake asked shyly.

“Sure, Jake.”

He hopped off of the couch and ran out of the room.

“Kids,” Christy said once their father was gone, “I know it’s weird, but…”

“Dad’s still there, though, right?” Lincoln asked.

“He’s still there,” she nodded. “Now there’s just other people there, too.”

“I like Sam,” Lily mused.

“Things will be different at home, but I think you’ll be able to get used to it.”

Lily and Lincoln nodded, and Lando continued to suck his thumb.

Jake came back, struggling to carry his favorite toys. He dropped them all in front of the couch. He picked up his big stuffed dinosaur and sat down once more. Lando grasped it and smiled.

“Dino!” The toddler grinned.

The kids spent the next hour playing with Jake. Lily got bored faster than the boys, so she sat with her mom, talking quietly.

Link suddenly came back, interrupting playtime.

“Aaaaaw,” Lincoln whined.

“What do you mean!?” Link chuckled. Noticing the toys, he asked, “Were you guys having fun with Jake?”

The kids all nodded.

“Sam said he’d braid my hair,” Lily smiled, hugging her father.

“Is that right?” Link asked. “He’s gonna have fun with that! He tried to do Rhett’s makeup one day, you know.”

The kids all laughed.

“Well,” Rhett interrupted, “I think I should head home.” He wandered the house gathering his things. Before walking out of the front door, he was surprised when Lincoln stopped him. “What’s up, little dude?” Rhett asked, kneeling.

“Thank you for taking care of my dad.”

Rhett smiled, patting the boy on the shoulder. “You’re welcome, buddy.”

It took Rhett a while to get used to being at home again, without constantly having to keep an eye on Link and the alters. Their new arrangement, however, worked out wonderfully. Rhett and Link could be with their respective wives and children. Rhett loved being able to be with his sons again. He explained Link’s situation to them, and they took it well. Link’s kids loved playing with Jake, and Sam bonded wonderfully with Lily. Christy felt comfortable leaving the kids alone with Sam, so she had the opportunity to get away from everything if she felt like she needed to. The four adults kept the status of their relationships to themselves. At least once a week, the two men would spend the night at the office and make love. Rhett had never felt happier in his life.

In the beginning, Link’s disorder seemed like it would destroy their lives. Violence and terror were inescapable for a while. Now, however, there was love. They still had tough times, but Rhett wouldn’t trade it for anything. 


End file.
